SD season sweep proves elusive vs. Cincy

Padres closer Mark Melancon has been solid all season, but Thursday was not his night.

He was charged with his fourth blown save of the season as the Reds rallied in the ninth inning for a 5-4 walk-off victory at Great American Ball Park.

• Box score

It turned out to be the only victory for the Reds in seven games against San Diego this season.

With one out, the Padres had a 4-3 lead in the ninth inning, but Kyle Farmer hit a home run to tie the game. Later in the inning, the Reds had the bases loaded and two outs when Tyler Stephenson singled to right field, scoring Jonathan India.

“We’ve had some games fall out of our hands at their place, and we’ve been right there with them,” Stephenson said. “I felt like nothing has gone our way. It felt good to kind of have something go our way for once. It says a lot that we can compete with them. We just need to have faith in ourselves and have the confidence that we can compete with one of the best teams in baseball.”

Manager Jayce Tingler wasn’t pleased the Padres couldn’t score insurance runs in the top of the ninth after Jurickson Profar led off with a double against Reds reliever Art Warren.

In the bottom half, Profar was unable to catch a double hit by India to left field. Profar thought he caught the ball and lost it while transferring to his throwing hand, but Profar didn’t have the ball long enough in the glove.

“That was tough,” said Tingler. “It was a long night. We had to fight for everything we got. We didn’t execute in the ninth.”

It looked like the Padres were going to have a nice comeback victory after what happened in the eighth inning. The game was tied at 3 when the Padres scored the go-ahead run. With two outs and reliever Brad Brach on the mound, it appeared Manny Machado was thrown out while trying to steal second base. But the replay showed that Machado was safe.

Eric Hosmer followed and hit a routine grounder to Alejo Lopez at third base, and it looked like the inning was over. Wrong. Lopez threw the ball and it went past first baseman Joey Votto for an error, allowing Machado to score the go-ahead run.

In the eighth inning, Machado got into scoring position after All-Star Fernando Tatis Jr. was thrown out on the bases. Tatis tried to advance from second base on Machado’s ground ball to shortstop and was unable to pull off one of his escape acts while in a rundown.

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The Padres now will play a three-game series against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park after a late-night flight. It will be the first time the two teams will meet this season.

“It will be a challenge,” Tingler said. “We will lighten the pregame work [Friday]. It’s a team we haven’t seen. If we do much, it will be meetings and probably hitting in the cage. We’ll get out and move around a bit. It will be a pretty light workload. It will be more of a show and go.”