SAN DIEGO — That was a lot to take in on a Wednesday afternoon.
The Padres hit three home runs in a game for the first time this season, two of them by Luke Voit and the other by Eric Hosmer. Voit twice tied the game by launching balls over the left field wall.
The Padres also showed why home runs are so important, as they were an atrocious 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Then there was the Cubs’ Willson Contreras, who continued to get on base and used a ninja slide to stay on base and perpetuate a big inning.
And, finally, there was Luis Garcia getting hit around as he had not previously with the Padres.
When it was all finished, the Cubs had won 7-5 and left San Diego with their second series victory of the season, having taken two of three at Petco Park. (Box score.) The Padres won four of the seven games on their homestand and have had a winning record on both homestands and both road trips.
They departed for a nine-game road trip with a 20-12 record, tied for third best in the National League.
But like many of their defeats, this one felt particularly empty because of what had seemed in their grasp.
And despite three solo home runs, two of them in the seventh inning to tie the game 5-5, Wednesday’s game just had that feel almost from the start.
The Padres were close to pouring it on a couple times early but at the tipping point both times could not turn a rally into a rout.
They paid for it in large part because Contreras could hardly be stopped.
Padres starter Nick Martinez had retired eight straight batters after Contreras’ first-inning home run when Contreras came to the plate to start the fourth inning.
Contreras drew a walk, reaching base for the 10th time in his 12 plate appearances in the series to that point. Martinez struck out the next batter, Ian Happ, with a curve ball that bounced in front of the plate and was blocked by catcher Jorge Alfaro. As Contreras took off for second, Alfaro grabbed the ball and threw to third baseman Manny Machado, who was covering the bag. The throw beat Contreras, who was sliding headfirst to the right of the bag. But Contreras evaded the tag with his left arm and reached around to touch the bag with his right hand.
Patrick Wisdom lined Martinez’s next pitch to center field to score Contreras and tie the game 2-2.
Another walk was followed by a strikeout before Frank Schwindel lined a two-run double off the wall in center field and Jason Heyward drove in Schwindel with a single that put the Cubs up 5-2.
Martinez, possibly making his final start before a temporary switch to the bullpen when Blake Snell returns next week, was finished after a 35-pitch fourth inning. It was his shortest outing of the season.
The Padres tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the first when Jurickson Profar tripled, Machado walked and Hosmer hit an RBI single with one out. But Wil Myers followed by grounding into a double play.
Voit hit his first home run in 45 at-bats with the Padres to make it 2-1 in the second inning.
In the third, a Profar walk and Machado single gave the Padres runners at the corners with no outs. Hosmer’s double play grounder and Myers’ groundout ended the inning.
It got even worse after the Cubs took the lead.
One-out singles by Voit and Ha-seong Kim and an ill-advised and tardy throw to second base on Trent Grisham’s grounder loaded the bases. But Jorge Alfaro struck out by swinging at three pitches that were not close to passing through the strike zone. A run was forced home when a swing by Jake Cronenworth clipped Contreras’ glove for a catcher interference before Profar popped out to shortstop.
Nabil Crismatt worked three scoreless innings in relief of Martinez to keep the game within reach, and Hosmer and Voit got the Padres back even in the seventh.
But the first four Cubs reached base against Garcia. The winning rally began with a single by Contreras, who went 7-for-10 with two walks and was twice hit by pitches in the series. The bases were loaded after Happ walked and Wisdom singled, and La Jolla Country Day alumnus Alfonso Rivas’ two-run single put the Cubs up 7-5.
Profar doubled with two outs in the eighth before Machado struck out to end the day 2-for-3 with a walk.
Hosmer led off the ninth with a single before Wil Myers flied out on a ball that fell just short of the wall in left-center field, Voit skied an out to center fielder Jason Heyward and Kim popped out to shortstop.
