SAN DIEGO -- The Padres have spent most of August scrambling to fill innings, with injuries and inconsistency in their starting rotation forcing them to look high and low for capable arms.

When does it end? Well, the Padres hope it ended Sunday afternoon with their demoralizing 7-4 loss to the Phillies at Petco Park -- a loss that dropped them a game behind the Reds in the National League Wild Card race, outside the “if the season ended today” playoff picture for the first time since June 17.

• Box score

Prior to the game, Yu Darvish threw a bullpen session and is nearing a return, likely this week against the Dodgers. Chris Paddack played aggressive catch, and his comeback is on the horizon, as well. Perhaps the Padres’ rotation will start to resemble a rotation again -- done with spot starts and impromptu bullpen days.

“There’s just something about knowing who the starting pitcher is going to be the next day,” said veteran reliever Craig Stammen, who served as the opener for Sunday’s bullpen day.

A return to normalcy can't come soon enough. Because what took place on the mound on Sunday afternoon offered the perfect encapsulation of everything that's gone wrong with the Padres’ pitching staff over the past month.

San Diego passed on the opportunity to add starting pitching at the Trade Deadline, despite its glaring need. The Padres missed out on Max Scherzer and José Berríos, their two primary targets, then decided the prices were too high to make a move elsewhere.

Elsewhere included then-Rangers right-hander Kyle Gibson, who went to Philadelphia in a Deadline-day deal. He pitched eight innings of one-run ball on Sunday afternoon. Trent Grisham scored the Padres’ lone run in the first inning, crossing home on a sacrifice fly after a leadoff double.

Meantime, the Padres were again forced to scramble to fill innings. Stammen pitched two innings of scoreless ball. But left-hander Ryan Weathers, moved to the bullpen after four consecutive rough starts, followed with another dud.

Weathers allowed three runs in two innings and saw his ERA climb to 5.27. Without any other options, the Padres have been forced to endure the struggles of a 21-year-old rookie.

“This is what we’ve got,” manager Jayce Tingler said. “What we talked about with Ryan right after the Trade Deadline is, ‘You’re going to get the ball. You’re going to take the ball. And we’re going to grow.’”

The Phillies broke the game open with three homers off Miguel Diaz, taking a 7-1 lead. The Padres plated three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Grisham struck out swinging with Fernando Tatis Jr. in the on-deck circle as the potential tying run.

Failing to build on the momentum of their dramatic come-from-behind victory on Saturday, the Padres stunningly enter the final six weeks of their season chasing the playoff leaders. In those six weeks, they will play the Dodgers and Giants a total of 19 times, beginning this week with three against Los Angeles at Petco Park.

“For whatever reason, it’s brought the best out of us,” said Tingler, and he’s not wrong -- the Padres are 11-8 against the two teams ahead of them in the NL West this season.

As for the pitching situation, it might finally be clearing up. When the Padres passed on adding any starters at the Deadline, suffice it to say they couldn’t have envisioned this. But Paddack tweaked his left oblique mere hours after the Deadline passed and Darvish suffered a recurrence of his lower back tightness the following week.

Add Weathers’ struggles to the mix, and the Padres were sent scrambling. Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove were suddenly the only remaining members of the starting rotation. The Padres resorted to signing a struggling Jake Arrieta and deploying multiple bullpen days per week. They hope those days are over.

Darvish is expected to return to the rotation against the Dodgers, either Tuesday or Thursday. Paddack’s return could follow at some point on the team’s next road trip, either in Anaheim or Arizona.

In the meantime...

“With the guys we have injured, this is how it’s got to be,” Stammen said. “We’ve got to figure it out and piece it together. Those guys are coming. Paddack and Darvish getting healthy, it’s certainly going to put us back in the normal way of doing things.

“But until then, we’ve just got to find a way. There’s no excuses. There’s no rhyme or reason. We’ve just got to find a way. It’s at that point in the season where it doesn’t matter how your arm feels, it doesn’t matter how your brain feels -- you’ve got to figure it out.”