Padres lose see-saw affair to Rays, as well as Luis Rengifo to injury

Each time the Padres had a push, the Tampa Bay Rays had a response as San Diego dropped their second game in a row, falling 7-6 on Saturday afternoon at Tropicana Field.

Manny Machado and Ty France each drove in a pair of runs for the Padres (72-64), but a four-run seventh by Tampa Bay (81-54), where Luis Rengifo appeared to injure his leg, was the difference in the game.

"I think the toughest thing is the emotional part about it when you lose a guy who meant so much to our team lately," manager Craig Stammen said. "(Rengifo) has been in the mix of a lot of the good things we've had happen offensively, so you feel for a teammate, you feel for a brother, he's a part of the family. We got him late, but he's been a big part of the family, I know those guys love him in there, and he's been a big energy piece to us, so we're going to miss it and we're going to have to replace him somehow."

Following the game the Padres announced that Rengifo exited the game with a right knee sprain and was receiving treatment, which will include flying back to San Diego for further evaluation.

Crueler still, with Arizona’s win at San Francisco, San Diego fell out of the final NL Wild Card spot by half a game.

The Padres seventh began with Rengifo drawing a full-count walk off reliever Garrett Cleavinger, then Dustin Harris lining his third knock of the game to right and Fernando Tatis Jr. dropping down a bunt for a hit to load the bases. Kevin Kelly came out of the pen to face Machado, who singled through the right side for a pair of RBI.

Then, Machado took off for second on a pitch to France, drawing the throw from Liam Hicks and allowing Tatis to score coming in the back door by stealing home for a 6-3 lead. It was Machado’s fourth and the 31st stolen bag for Tatis, which is one off the career-high that he established last season.

For the second straight inning the Rays were quickly able to respond, loading the bases in short order against reliever Bradgley Rodriguez on a walk and back-to-back singles. Then Yandy Díaz doubled to dead-center field off the wall.

On the relay, Rengifo had Taylor Walls caught between second and third when Cedric Mullins took off for home, prompting Rengifo to attempt to throw home, but his right knee buckled underneath him and his throw home went wide to the first base side. Three runs came in overall (two unearned on the error), as Díaz finished on third and Rengifo needed to be carted off after not moving following the play.

"We played a good game up until, and they made a base running mistake during that play, and it looked like we did the right thing, we were going to get a guy out regardless and we were going to be sitting in a better situation than it ended up being. That's the nature of the game, that's the nature of this ballpark," Stammen said.

Adrian Morejon came on in relief and got the first two outs, a ground out then strike out around an intentional walk to Junior Caminero, but Chandler Simpson singled through the left side to score the go-ahead run for the Rays.

Former Padre Nick Martinez had been getting the best of his old ball club, scattering five hits and a run across his first five innings, but it changed in the sixth. Machado led off with a single to left, then France fouled off two 1-2 pitches before going the opposite way with an elevated outside fastball, hitting a 351-foot home run down the right field line.

France’s 19th long ball made for a short-lived San Diego lead, as Caminero led off the sixth by getting down to muscle Walker Buehler’s low cutter just over the wall in left-center field for his 36th home run. That ended the day for the Padres starter, who battled through five innings while giving up seven hits and three runs, striking out three on 71 pitches and was visibly upset with getting the hook.

Kyle Hart picked Buehler up by retiring the Rays in order on six pitches, getting a pair of groundouts before punching out Jonny DeLuca 1-2-3 and looking at a low sinker.

Tampa Bay had gotten it going from the jump with Díaz doubling on the first pitch of the game by Buehler. The Padres looked like they might escape the opening inning unscathed, but Liam Hicks hit a two-out, RBI single up the middle just past the diving attempt by Jake Cronenworth, who made the start at short stop.

Two innings later Cronenworth would level the game, cracking a middle-cut sinker to right center that bounced off the wall for an RBI double. It plated Harris, who had opened the inning by singling on a grounder that second baseman Richie Palacios deflected. Harris has hits in three of his four appearances with the Brown and Gold.

The tie was short-lived, as Jonathan Aranda extended on a middle changeup, sending a solo home run 453 feet to dead-center field that landed over the batter’s eye in the home half of the third.  It matched the second-longest home run of the season for Tampa Bay, equaling Caminero’s solo bomb against the Chicago White Sox on July 31.

The series finale will see Robbie Ray (11-7, 3.21 ERA) take the hill for the Padres, fresh off a no-decision from a five-hit, two runs allowed outing where he struck out five and walked two in the extra innings loss to Pittsburgh on August 24. Countering for Tampa Bay will be righty Drew Rasmussen (14-5, 2.95 ERA), whose 14 wins are tied for fourth-most in the Majors as he’s riding a streak of seven W’s in a row. First pitch is slated for 10:40 a.m. PT at Tropicana Field on Sunday, Aug. 30.

This story was updated at 4:28 p.m.