Robbie Ray never reached the end of the third inning, and San Diego never recovered from the five runs he left behind. The Yankees beat the Padres 5-1 Saturday at Petco Park, answering San Diego's extra-inning win in the series opener with a game that was effectively shaped before Manny Machado came to bat a second time.
New York scored four times in the second, all with two outs, then added another run in the third. Ray recorded seven outs and allowed five earned runs over 2 1/3 innings, his shortest start in more than two years. The loss moved him to 11-8 and raised his earned-run average to 3.39.
The trouble was concentrated but complete. Ray entered the start after providing stability since the Padres acquired him at the trade deadline. On Saturday, pitches left in hittable areas extended the second inning until four runs had crossed. A sacrifice fly in the third made it 5-0 and ended his afternoon soon afterward.
San Diego's bullpen stopped the score there. Relievers covered the final 6 2/3 innings without allowing a run and did so without requiring the club's primary high-leverage options, according to MLB's game account. That preserved those arms for the series finale, but it could not repair the five-run deficit the offense faced.
Machado supplied the Padres' only run in the fourth, driving his 25th home run of the season to left-center. The swing cut the deficit to four and gave him 10 seasons with at least 25 homers. San Diego managed only three hits for the game, however, and no second rally formed behind its third baseman.
Carlos Rodon kept the Padres from extending the inning. The New York left-hander worked five innings, allowed one earned run and struck out seven to improve to 5-3 with a 3.09 ERA. San Diego did not score against the Yankees' bullpen. The pitching contrast was simple: New York's starter reached five with the lead; San Diego's did not reach three.
The Padres fell to 74-68. Arizona won in Houston on the same day and moved one-half game ahead of San Diego for the National League's final wild-card position. That standing can reverse quickly in September, but Saturday carried a direct cost: the Padres lost both the game and the narrow place they had recovered with Friday's walk-off victory.
A crowd of 40,946 watched the 3-hour, 8-minute day game. The Yankees finished with nine hits and one error; the Padres had three hits and one error. Those totals reinforce the inning-by-inning account. San Diego's relievers kept the opponent at five, yet the lineup did not create enough traffic to make that ceiling useful.
The series concludes Sunday at 1:10 p.m. at Petco Park before Washington arrives for three games beginning Monday. San Diego does not need to erase the whole wild-card gap at once; it needs the next start to keep the game within reach. On Saturday, the first five runs arrived too early for Machado's milestone swing to alter anything but the final margin.