CINCINNATI _ The Padres are not a team set up to win consistently.
Not in some spots on the field, not at certain places in the batting order and not on the bench _ and certainly not on a day when the aim is filling a hole in the rotation.
With one bad play in the outfield and eight bad pitches in the third inning, a "bullpen game" for the Padres went awry in a hurry Wednesday afternoon at Great American Ball Park, as they lost a game 4-2 and lost a series to the Reds to end their six-game trip even.
The Padres struck out just four times against Luis Castillo, the first time in the three games here a Reds starter did not strike out at least 10 batters.
However, did go six innings and get his 12th victory of the season.
Matt Strahm worked two scoreless innings at the start, and a single by Ty France and double by Greg Garcia put the Padres up 1-0 in the top of the third.
The revolving door for the bullpen, necessary as the Padres continue to protect rookie starter Chris Paddack by giving him five days between starts, opened for the first time.
Out came Eric Yardley for his major league debut, which would end with him being charged with three runs (two earned) and ultimately the loss.
The first pitch Yardley threw was lined to left field, directly at Josh Naylor, who had the ball carom off his glove for an error as Nick Senzel ran to second base.
Senzel moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Eugenio Suarez's grounder through a right side vacated by the shift. A walk to Aristides Aquino and soft liner to center by Phillip Ervin loaded the bases and ended Yardley's debut.
Trey Wingenter came in and walked in a run on a full-count fastball to Freddy Galvis to put the Reds up 2-1. After striking out Tucker Barnhart on three pitches, Wingenter walked Josh VanMeter on four pitches to bring in another run.
Luis Perdomo, who entered the game in the fourth having not allowed a run in 6 2/3 innings this month, hung a slider that Jose Iglesias popped over the wall in the short left field corner for Cincinnati's final run.
The Padres, with Manny Machado sitting for the first time after 40 straight starts, had three left-handed hitters atop their order for the first time this season. Switch-hitting catcher Francisco Mejia hit fifth against the right-handed Castillo. That emptied the Padres' cache of lefties, since it was outfielder Travis Jankowski who was optioned to Triple-A to make room on the roster for Yardley.
The Padres made Castillo work, pushing him to three-ball counts six times along the way to 100 pitches. But they couldn't do nearly enough damage.
Wil Myers' lead-off single in the fifth was negated by France's double-play grounder, which Luis Urias followed with a single before Perdomo ended the inning with a pop fly.
Eric Hosmer's two-out single in the sixth was the Padres' only other hit off Castillo, who entered the game 16th in the majors with 201 strikeouts. His rate of 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings sat in the middle of Trevor Bauer (10.8) and Sonny Gray (10.4), who struck out 11 in seven innings and 10 in six innings, respectively, on Monday and Tuesday.
With right-hander Lucas Sims having replaced Castillo, Mejia's eighth home run of the season _ the fourth of his 11 career homers to come here _ cut the Reds' lead to 4-2 in the seventh inning.
The Padres return to Petco Park on Friday for a six-game homestand against the Red Sox and Dodgers.
