CINCINNATI — The Padres weren't done.
But they might be.
Two-out home runs in the top and bottom of the eighth inning figured prominently in Sunday's game, which pushed the Padres' season closer to the edge of just not mattering.
After Ha-Seong Kim and Fernando Tatis Jr. homered in the top of the eighth to tie a game in which the Padres offense had been practically catatonic, pinch-hitter Tyler Stephenson launched a two-run homer on the first pitch thrown by reliever Nick Martinez in the bottom of the inning.
The Padres scored again in the ninth before leaving a runner at second at the end of a 4-3 loss to the Reds.
Thus concluded a devastating six-game road trip in which the Padres won once, skidding right up to being irrelevant in even the most broad playoff discussion.
One pitch after Reds starter Andrew Abbott had struck out his career-high 12th batter, Kim lined a home run just over the left field wall.
Tatis followed with a blast that soared and sailed a projected 420 feet to the second deck of seats beyond left field eventually crashing into a seat located just in front of a row of a dozen red "K" placards.
The Padres were alive.
Left-hander Tom Cosgrove got the first two outs in the bottom of the inning before walking Jake Fraley.
Stephenson was inserted, and so was Martinez.
The Padres were all but done. But not quite.
First, after Manny Machado grounded out and Xander Bogaerts struck out against Reds closer Alexis Diaz, Gary Sánchez grounded a two-out single up the middle and Jake Cronenworth doubled to the gap in left-center to make it 4-3. Rougned Odor, hitting for Nelson Cruz, lined out to second baseman Jonathan India.
Abbott allowed successive one-out singles to Tatis and Soto in the first inning. Machado and Bogaerts followed with strikeouts, both swinging at the final two strikes on pitches well off the plate, including fastballs that ended their at-bats.
Abbott would go on to retire 15 straight batters, the longest such stretch this season against the Padres, to get one out into the sixth.
A walk by Kim halted the run, and Soto singled with two outs before Machado popped out in foul territory.
Abbott, who had not gone longer than six innings in any of his five career starts, set down the next five batters and was within an out of completing eight innings when Kim hit a first-pitch fastball for his fifth home run in 10 games.
A team that has lamented its inability to coordinate its good performances, got three shutout innings from Adrián Morejón at the start and three shutout innings from Pedro Avila in the middle of the game.
The Reds scored with two outs in the fourth inning when Tim Hill hit Joey Votto in the back with a fastball and then had Spencer Steer launch a fastball in the heart of the strike zone into the second deck of seats beyond left field.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
