DENVER _ Jose Pirela may have a new lease on playing time. Kirby Yates may have some adjusting to do to his new role.
The former's three-hit game went was wasted in Thursday's 4-3 walk-off loss to the Rockies, the knockout blow coming via the third ninth-inning homer that Yates has allowed in his last four appearance as the Padres' new closer.
All three tagged Yates with a loss.
"It's kind of the only mistake I felt I made," Yates said. "A one-run lead in this ballpark, it's kind of all it takes _ a bloop and a blast. It sucks. I got him the other night. He got me today."
He was Ian Desmond.
The bloop was Trevor Story's one-out flyball falling in front of right fielder Travis Jankowski.
The mistake was a 1-0 splitter that didn't dive.
Two days after whiffing one beneath the strike zone, Desmond yanked Yates' offering 419-feet to left field to waste both rookie Joey Lucchesi's best day in the mound in more than four months and Pirela's encouraging return to a prominent role.
"Mistakes have gone out of the ballpark," said Yates, who allowed game-losing homers to the Angels' Rene Rivera and the D-backs' A.J. Pollock in the last eight nine days. "Probably not the best pitches. Some of them aren't bad pitches. You know, guys probably have better plans coming into me now at this point in the season. I'm starting to face these guys multiple, multiple times.
"Hitters make adjustments and sometimes they get their pitch and they don't miss it and you have to tip your hat."
Pirela started for the second day in a row at second base in place of Christian Villanueva, who is out three to four weeks with a fractured finger.
The 28-year-old Venezuelan has started only 11 games since the All-Star break but added to a .249/.305/.340 batting line with three singles: a line drive to right in the first, an infield dribbler in the fourth and an up-the-middle grounder with the bases loaded in the seventh.
Two runs scored on Pirela's final hit, and Hunter Renfroe returned from a forearm injury with a 427-foot homer an inning earlier only to see Yates blow the win for rookie Joey Lucchesi.
The 25-year-old rookie was as sharp as ever.
He struck out six, scattered five hits and a walk and threw 54 of his 81 pitches for strikes. His only real mistake was a 2-0 sinker in the middle of the plate that David Dahl hammered over the wall in right with two outs in the fifth inning to put the Padres in a 1-0 hole.
Dahl also doubled in the third to log the first hit off Lucchesi. A second run scored in the sixth when Charlie Blackmon singled, swiped second base, moved to third on a groundball and scored on Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly to second.
Lucchesi had already fanned Arenado twice, including in the fourth when he struck out D.J. LeMahieu, Arenado and Trevor Story in order.
He left after six innings for pinch-hitter Wil Myers with only his second quality start since April 15.
Rookie right-hander Trey Wingenter struck out one in a scoreless seventh, Padres manager Andy Green managed left-hander Jose Castillo (two outs) and right-hander Craig Stammen (one out) through an uneventful eighth.
But Yates allowed a bloop single to Trevor Story and gave up Desmond's walk-off blast, his third home run allowed in a loss in a little more than a week.
