ARLINGTON -- Padres lefty Clayton Richard had a flawless record in June entering his final start of the month, but even another workmanlike outing wasn't enough to match Mike Minor, who flirted with a perfect game in Wednesday night's series finale that saw the Padres fall, 5-2, at Globe Life Park.
The Padres hit the ball hard off Minor at times -- 11 of the 14 outs he got on balls in play were fly balls -- but Minor was still tough enough to keep the Padres' offense completely dormant for 6 1/3 innings. Eric Hosmer's seventh-inning single was the only time a San Diego batter reached base against the Rangers southpaw, and after Minor left, a sudden offensive awakening in the eighth fizzled out against two Rangers relievers.
Richard labored more Wednesday than he's used to lately, scattering 10 hits, hitting three batters and walking one. But he fought through seven innings to match Minor's output and kept the Padres close even though their offense was absent.
"He really battled today," manager Andy Green said. "If we'd done some things offensively, we were still in there late and we had a chance to win it. It's one of those 'battle mode' games for him. Not necessarily his sharpest, but he still manages to give you a chance."

The veteran starter assessed his night more critically: "Not as good of a chance as I would have liked," Richard said.
Richard was a stalwart amid a difficult June for the Padres, who had won the last five games he had started dating back to May 30. Richard hadn't allowed more than three runs in a start since May 25, posting a 2.73 ERA in 33 innings over five consecutive quality starts. He earned the win in each of his last four outings.
Richard's third inning went awry after he retired the first two batters. Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre then got back-to-back doubles, before Richard hit Rougned Odor and Jurickson Profar singled in Beltre.
Those two runs didn't bother Richards as much as the two he gave up in the fourth and seventh innings, both of which saw him allow the leadoff man to reach. It was 4-0 when the Padres' bats got going, scoring twice but leaving the bases loaded in the eighth.
"I kind of understand the first two [runs], but not making an adjustment quick enough and giving up another two changes the game," Richard said. "That bases-loaded situation's a lot different if we're only down by two as opposed to four. For me, that's the disappointing part, is not locking it down after that."
The Padres hit some balls hard off Minor, but the Rangers lefty entered the seventh having retired 18 straight with five strikeouts. After he induced a fly ball to right -- the Padres' 11th flyout against Minor -- Hosmer broke up the bid for history with a single to right field.
"I thought honestly we had some hittable pitches early and missed them," Green said. "He wasn't pitching the type of game that would lend itself to what he was getting. … The first time through the lineup, it was fairly innocuous at-bats, relatively soft contact and probably [an] opportunity to wait a little bit longer to find the pitch that you really want to drive instead of putting his pitch or just a borderline pitch in play."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Padres' rally not enough: After Minor's perfect game disappeared off Hosmer's bat, the Rangers turned to Chris Martin for the eighth. Villanueva doubled and Jose Pirela singled, and then with one out, Austin Hedges drove in Christian Villanueva with a double, chasing Martin. Travis Jankowski and Hosmer both walked off Jose Leclerc, who bounced back and struck out William Myers for the third out.
"We started to swing it well and then we had good at-bats in the eighth and gave ourselves an opportunity and came up a little bit empty," Green said.

SOUND SMART
The Padres and Rangers have now played in the two hottest game-time temperatures of the season, after Wednesday's 101-degree start surpassed the 98-degree heat at the first pitch Tuesday.
HE SAID IT
"It's a tough road trip, there's no other way around it. Offensively, we didn't do much. When you don't do much, you feel like the team overall is lethargic. That's not necessarily the case, but when you're not putting people on base, you don't feel energy. … When there's not a lot of traffic on the base paths, it's kind of a grind." -- Green, on the Padres' 2-5 road trip
UP NEXT
After an off-day Thursday, the Padres will begin a quick three-game homestand against the Pirates on Friday at 7:10 p.m. PT. The Padres won three of four in Pittsburgh in May in the teams' only series this season, and third baseman Christian Villanueva homered in each of the last two games there, going 4-for-10 overall in the series with four RBIs.