Braves’ slide continues in extra-inning loss to Padres

SAN DIEGO — The Braves’ mid-June woes continued Tuesday at Petco Park in 6-5, 10-inning loss that was there for the taking more often than not.

Manny Machado hit a first pitch, walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning, sending the Padres to a 7-6 win and the Braves to their ninth loss in the last 12 games. Manager Walt Weiss’ team fell to 10-9 in one-run games, 2-4 in extra innings and 36-5 when leading after six innings.

Machado, who also had the winning homer Monday, hit his game-winner off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias who was beginning his second inning of work after throwing a scoreless ninth. A 93-mph sinker down the middle was hit right where it came from and into center field allowing Jackson Merrill, who began the frame at second base, to score with ease.

“Typically we don’t — ‘Iggy’ puts down that ninth, typically if we don’t score, we don’t send him back out in a tie game, but he wanted to go back out for the 10th,” Weiss said. (Reliever James) Karinchak was not available tonight either. He went one+plus (Monday) night, but he was going to take the ball if it got to it.

“So our guys stepped up, ‘Iggy’ going back out for the 10th, Karinchak being willing to come in if the game gets extended. We weren’t in position to play extra innings tonight.”

Weiss’ strapped and strained bullpen made for a tightrope walk that ended in a painful fall.

The first-year skipper said Robert Saurez, the team’s setup man, was not available because of forearm tightness. It’s an injury not believed to be serious — Weiss said Saurez could be able to pitch as soon as Wednesday.

Suarez’s absence had a ripple affect through the Braves’ bullpen which had seen Kirinchak, Didier Fuentes and Dylan Dodd all pitch Monday in a 1-0 loss to the Padres.

So, Weiss said, the game plan was to use starter JR Ritchie and reliever Carlos Carrasco to get through seven innings before turning it over to Lee and Iglesias. The plan nearly worked.

With the Braves clutching a 6-5 lead to start the seventh, Fernando Tatis Jr. took a 3-2 sinker from reliever Carrasco and launched it 410 feet to center field for just his third home run of the season.

Carrasco was able to get the next two outs in the inning before Dylan Lee got the third, then threw a scoreless eighth. Weiss said there was no thought to having Lee, or anyone else, begin the seventh inning on the mound.

“I stretched (Lee) the four outs. He was not available except for three outs” Weiss said. “At that point in the game (with two outs in the seventh) I just felt like I had to bring him in there in the seventh and I stretched him further than he was actually available.

“I had to get through seven with Richie and ‘Cookie’ (Carrasco), that’s basically where we were at.”

Still, with the Braves’ arms hanging by the proverbial thread, there were chances to steal a win on the road.

The bases were loaded with one out in the sixth and the Braves didn’t score. They caught a break in the eighth when Tatis dropped a fly ball trying to make a running catch toward the right field line allowing Michael Harris II to reach second. But Harris was stranded at third to end the inning.

To begin the 10th, Ha-Seong Kim pinch-ran for Drake Baldwin at second. Kim went to third on Austin Riley’s sacrifice fly to right off Padres closer Mason Miller. But Rowdy Tellez struck out and Eli White grounded out to short.

The Braves (48-30) also had a four-run lead through 1 1/2 innings and had knocked two opposing pitchers out of the game.

The Padres used a reliever to open the game in Wandy Peralta — he pitched a 1-2-3 first inning. Starter Griffin Canning came on to pitch the second, and was expected to eat up a good chunk of the rest of the game, but things did not go as well as they had for his predecessor.

Singles by Dominic Smith and Mauricio Dubón began the inning before Baldwin took a pitch to the right foot loading the bases. One out later, Tellez drove a two-run single to right.

With two outs, Harris banged an RBI double off the wall in right making it 3-0. After a walk to Ozzie Albies loaded the bases, Canning was yanked. It was reliever Kyle Hart’s turn to try to get an out, but he instead walked Matt Olson to force in another run.

Braves starter JR Ritchie couldn’t handle the prosperity of a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second, though, walking two hitters before allowing back-to-back RBI singles to Rodolfo Durán and Sung-Mun Song, respectively, the bottom two hitters in the Padres order. A Tatis RBI double into the left field corner cut the score to 4-3.

Then, Samad Taylor smoked a 1-0 fastball up the middle that Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón made a diving stop on, only to hop up and make a throw in the dirt to first that skipped past Olson and allowed two more runs to score.

“Second inning, we scored four, and then Ritchie had a tough time the second inning,” Weiss said. “To his credit he ended up getting through five, but the second inning was a rough one. We had a 4-nothing lead and then down 5-4.

“Obviously, we were short in the pen, we had three guys available. We had Dylan Lee and ‘Cookie’ and ‘Iggy,’ that was it. Needed to get through seven with Ritchie and ‘Cookie’ to get through the game. We certainly weren’t built for extra innings tonight.”

After all that, the Braves had plenty of time to rebound, and did for a bit when Albies drew the score even at 5-5 in the fourth with a two-out RBI double off Hart. With one out in the fifth, Dubón golfed a fastball from Yuki Matsui out to left for a solo home run, his eighth of the season, giving the Braves the lead back.

Ritchie was able to battle through five innings despite only 53 of his 98 pitches being strikes. He finished his seventh start of the season by striking out Xander Bogaerts and stranding Merrill at second.

Yet the rookie walked five batters and has issued 3.4 free passes per start in his young MLB career.

“I’m gonna play around with a few things, maybe change some mentality on it going forward,” Ritchie said of the high walk total. “I don’t really think it’s a mechanical issue. Will kind of think about a couple different things, bounce some ideas off of ‘Hef’ (pitching coach Jeremy Hefner) and (bullpen coach) J.P. (Martinez) and all them and see what they think.”