Up four runs quick, Nats then go silent in San Diego (updated)

SAN DIEGO - The first 22 minutes of tonight's ballgame at Petco Park were just lovely for the Nationals. Sure, the sky was overcast and the gametime temperature of 63 degrees wasn't exactly what an outsider was looking for on an early summer evening in San Diego. But the four-spot posted by the visitors in the top of the first more than made up for anything else and seemingly had this road trip off to a rousing start.

By the time the Padres wrapped up a 5-4 victory three hours later, the memory of that hot start was long forgotten, replaced instead by a second straight shaky outing for Patrick Corbin, a critical botched play in the field and an ice-cold showing from the Nats lineup following the early explosion.

So much for keeping the positive vibes going after a nice run. The Nationals came west flying high after winning nine of 11. Then they put up a dud tonight, and in the process fell to an unfathomable 5-16 in series openers.

It's not like there wasn't a golden opportunity to keep the momentum moving forward. The Nats led 4-0 in the first and loaded the bases in the second against Padres starter Joey Lucchesi. But they did nothing at the plate after that, with 20 consecutive batters retired by five different San Diego pitchers.

"One of those days," manager Davey Martinez said. "We came out, swung the bats well the first couple innings. And then they shut us down."

And because the Padres were able to take advantage of another erratic Corbin start, they walked out of Petco Park with the win.

The evening began swimmingly for the Nationals, who scored four runs in the top of the first thanks to a couple of clutch two-out hits but perhaps more importantly a key walk that ignited the rally moments earlier.

Juan Soto, batting with one on and two out, fell behind in the count 0-2 to Lucchesi. The red-hot slugger, though, battled back to a full count, fouled off a tough 3-2 pitch from the lanky lefty and then took a close pitch for ball four to keep the inning alive.

That proved huge, because Howie Kendrick immediately drove a base hit to center that brought home two runs (with Soto scoring on a successfully aggressive send by Bobby Henley). And that merely set the stage for Brian Dozier to launch a two-run homer into the second level of the Western Metal Supply Co. building down the left field line, capping the four-run explosion.

"He's on time every pitch, which is helping him stay back and see the ball a little better," Martinez said of Dozier, now batting .333 with four homers and 14 RBIs over his last 19 games, raising his OPS from .606 to .731. "We said this before: He's a very slow starter. And we knew that. Now all of a sudden, things are starting to click for him."

The four early runs were great for the Nationals. Trouble is, they tried to make them hold up the rest of the game. On a night when Corbin is in peak form, it would've been enough. On a night when he clearly wasn't, it wasn't.

The left-hander seemed out of sorts from the get-go, issuing a five-pitch walk to the very first batter he faced, even after he was just handed a 4-0 lead. Corbin would wind up walking five batters in all, matching his career high, with two of those batters coming around to score.

"Walking five guys, I don't know if I've done that before," he said. "I just felt a little off, maybe a little quick (with my) front side."

One of the aforementioned batters who walked scored when Hunter Renfroe crushed a Corbin fastball to center field for a second-inning homer. The other scored on a train wreck of a play by the left side of the Nationals infield.

Facing a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, Corbin got Manny Machado to ground to short. Trea Turner didn't have a play at the plate, but he did have a play at third, so he threw the ball to Anthony Rendon and beat the runner to the bag.

"Slow-hit ball, kind of a capper, a skimmer," Turner said. "So I didn't think I'd have the double play, and I figured I had momentum going to third, so I figured it was the right play."

Rendon, though, didn't catch the slightly high throw. The ball caromed off his glove and rolled into foul territory, and by the time he retrieved it two Padres had crossed the plate to tie the game.

"From what I saw, it looked like Anthony put his head down to see where the base was," Martinez said. "And as he looked up, the ball was here at his head."

Rendon was charged with the error, but Turner took responsibility.

"Looking back at it, I think if I make a better throw, we get out of that inning with the lead and probably win the game," the shortstop said. "That kind of was the difference."

No matter who was to blame, the error not only let two runs score but also let the go-ahead runner advance to third, and that proved costly when Franmil Reyes sent a fly ball to deep left field, scoring the go-ahead run.

Who knew that would be the last runner to cross the plate tonight?

"We get an out right there," Martinez said, "the next guy flies out, and we're out of the inning."