On the day when the nation is looking back at its history, the Friars decided to keep things firmly in the present state of affairs.

With another lead staked out, the Padres’ pitching staff (helped by a costly error) was unable to hold on for a second straight night. The Padres dropped their second game in a row to the Dodgers, losing 4-3 in a season that’s rapidly sinking under the weight of poor physical and mental performances.

After tagging Roki Sasaki on Thursday, the Padres managed to get runs against Shohei Ohtani and take advantage of opportunities.

The Padres started the game with back-to-back walks to Tatis and Cronenworth before Gavin Sheets singled on a line drive to left field, scoring Tatis. Unfortunately, back-to-back strikeouts of Ty France and Jackson Merrill kept Cro from scoring.  Merrill would make up for his strikeout by homering in the 4th inning off Othani; not only was that Merrill’s second home run in as many games, but he was the first batter to get a home run off Shohei Othani at home this year.

Merrill is the first player to take Ohtani deep at Dodger Stadium this season. https://t.co/1b9Pj3CeHo

— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) July 4, 2026

The Padres would strike again in the 6th inning as Merrill would single, then Xander Bogaerts would double him home, giving the Padres a three-run lead. Xander would get to third on a Sung Moon Son single, but the Padres again couldn’t bring a runner home as Duran popped out to first.

Michael King had a very clean five inning allowing only a single hit on 50 pitches, looking like the ace of a few years ago.

However, he continues to struggle on his third trip through the order, showing his recurring struggles. Despite only allowing one hit in the 6th, an opening single to Dalton Rushing, King put men on first and second with two out. He worked around the struggles on 16 pitches and managed to get Freddie Freeman to ground out to end the inning.  King was brought out in the 7th inning but promptly gave up a walk to Mookie Betts and a single to Max Muncy before manager Craig Stammen would replace him with Adrian Morejon.

Unfortunately, the Padres did what they’ve been doing for most of this horrid stretch, and failed to keep their lead.

Morejon had an easy double play from Kyle Tucker turned into an error by Jake Cronenworth, loading the bases. On the very next pitch, Teoscar Hernandez sent it 419 feet into left center for a grand slam to give the Dodgers their first lead of the night. Despite then giving up two walks and a double, Morejon managed to get out of the inning on 24 pitches, but the damage was done. With the lead lost, the Padres went down without a struggle in the 8th and 9th, ending the game.

San Diego is now under .500 for the first time this season and is now 14 games behind the Dodgers, firmly in third place and 3.5 games behind the Cardinals, who own the season series, for the last wild card.

The Padres and Dodgers continue their four-game series at Chavez Ravine on America’s 250th Birthday; Griffin Canning will take on Yoshinobu Yamamoto at 7:10 PST.

Loren Casuto

A Native San Diegan, Loren has spent his entire life not only as a fan but an active participant in San Diego’s sports world. In 2006 Loren joined two other die hard Charger fans to create Bolttalk, where Loren was a co-host and regular columnist from 2006 until the Chargers left in 2017. After that he started another podcast, The Grid Podshow, from 2020-2021 with his former co-host and colleague, speaking about the local sports community and popular culture.

When he’s not giving his opinion about San Diego sports, Loren is an adjunct professor at San Diego State and an attorney.