SAN DIEGO _ As Dinelson Lamet negotiated his way through one of the best starts of his career, three separate times the 27-year-old Tommy John patient was a pitch or two away from pushing the bullpen into early action.
That was the case again in the early innings Sunday.
The Rockies are simply a better hitting team than the lowly Mariners.
Lamet labored early in his first start of the year on four days' rest and gave up a game-tying homer in the sixth inning, and solo homers alone could not carry the Padres to their first four-game series sweep in nearly eight years in an 8-3 loss to the Rockies at Petco Park.
The Padres, with little to show against German Marquez outside early solo jobs from Francisco Mejia and Josh Naylor, settled for their first series win of the second half. They had not completed a four-game sweep since Aug. 18-21, 2011, at home against the Marlins.
Lamet took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Tuesday in Seattle, throwing a season-high 104 pitches and tying a career-high with 12 strikeouts in just his sixth big league start since his elbow reconstruction.
He was so strong, in fact, that the Padres green-lit Sunday's first appearance on four days' rest, an outing that began just about as wildly as a Tuesday gem in which he issued four walks inside the first three innings.
Likewise Sunday, Lamet walked the first batter on four pitches, walked another before first the inning was over and hit and walked the second and third hitters, respectively, in the third inning. Lamet, however, didn't give up a hit until Charlie Blackmon's one-out double in the third inning and was through five scoreless innings � thanks in part to a nine-pitch fifth � when Blackmon singled to start the sixth.
Lamet's next pitch was his last: a middle-middle, 96 mph fastball that former Padre Yonder Alonso pulled to right for his 100th career homer and a game-tying blast.
Green was on his way to the mound as Alonso jogged home.
Lamet threw 57 of his 85 pitches for strikes � including 23 in the first inning alone � and allowed only three hits but finished with three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch in five-plus innings. He struck out seven.
Right-hander Craig Stammen fared no better after Lamet's sixth-inning exit, allowing two more runs to score on four hits before Green called on rookie Michel Baez to fetch the last out.
Left-hander Matt Strahm allowed runs in the eighth a half-inning after Greg Garcia's double-play ball cut the Padres' deficit to 4-3 and newcomer Carl Edwards Jr. allowed two runs on two hits and two walks in his Padres debut in the ninth.
The Padres had little else going against Marquez outside that rally-killer and solo homers from Mejia in the second and Naylor in the third inning.
Marquez struck out nine and allowed three runs on five hits and two walks in eight innings. He needed only six pitches to get through the fifth, sat down the Padres with 13 more offerings a half-inning after the Rockies' go-ahead rally, traded a run for a double-play ball in the seventh and stranded Wil Myers' pinch-hit, lead-off single in the eighth.
Pinch-hitter Ian Kinsler flied out with runners on first and second to end the game in the ninth.
