SAN DIEGO _ Gio Gonzalez flicked 46 pitches toward home plate through the first two innings of Sunday's matinee. His defense committed two errors behind him. All the early traffic _ six base runners _ added up to one measly run.
A wild Dinelson Lamet needed more charity than that. He needed to help himself, too.
The 25-year-old Lamet walked a career-high six batters and Padres hitters combined to strand 16 hitters as Gonzalez sidestepped early trouble to pitch the Nationals to a 4-1 win at Petco Park.
Lamet, as has been the case in recent starts, didn't give up his first hit until the first time through the order, a double from Wilmer Difo with one out in the third.
The Nationals' ultimately pushed a run across on Daniel Murphy's sacrifice fly to left that inning, the least of Lamet's concerns in a three-walk frame.
The first was a leadoff free pass to Gio Gonzalez, the starting pitcher. Lamet walked two more to load the bases before striking out Anthony Rendon to end the inning.
After a one-two-three fourth, Lamet allowed a leadoff single to Alejadro De Aza, a stolen base and a one-out double from Murphy. A third run crossed the plate when the left-handed Adam Lind greeted left-handed rookie Buddy Baumann with a run-scoring double.
Lamet struck out eight batters for the first time since June 29. He also limited the opposition to three hits or less for a fifth straight start but saw his win streak snapped at four games after a high pitch count (94 pitches, 52 strikes) chased him before the end of the fifth for the first time since July 18.
That was also Lamet's last loss.
The Padres had Gonzalez cornered early.
Difo's throwing two-out throwing error after Jabari Blash's and Jose Pireal's back-to-back singles gave the Padres a 1-0 lead on Wil Myers' bouncer to shortstop. They got nothing out of the De Aza's whiff on a catch in right field the next inning with a runner on base and didn't push a runner past second base over the final five innings that Gonzalez started.
One was an eight-pitch sixth. In the seventh, Manuel Margot's two-out single snapped a string of eight straight outs before right-hander Joe Blanton struck out Blash to quiet the uprising.
In between, Gonzalez struck out eight and scattered five hits and a walk over 6 2/3 innings. The one run he allowed was unearned.
Dusty Coleman's fourth error in the majors allowed the Nationals to tack an unearned run onto Phil Maton's line in the eighth.
Carter Capps pitched a perfect ninth, his first clean inning since returning from Tommy John surgery earlier this month.
