OAKLAND, Calif. _ It started poorly. It became ugly.
It got better, if only because it had to.
Then it devolved into, at least as baseball games go, disastrous.
The Padres failed at the plate and stumbled on the bases early, finally took a lead and then watched as their starting pitcher uncharacteristically melted down.
The Oakland A's scored four runs before Clayton Richard got an out and five in all in the sixth inning and went on to win 6-2 over the Padres on Tuesday night.
It was the Padres' 12th loss in 15 games, a stretch in which they are batting .229 overall and .211 with runners in scoring position.
Richard took just 55 pitches to get through five innings before walking two and allowing a single to load the bases at the start of the sixth.
Jed Lowrie's double cleared the bases and gave the A's a 3-2 lead. Khris Davis followed with a single to score Lowrie.
Third baseman Christian Villanueva began his fourth double play of the night to erase Davis. If not for that, the inning would have been even worse, as the next batter, Mark Canha, homered.
A line drive to second baseman Cory Spangenberg ended the inning, which took Richard (7-8) 28 pitches to get through.
It was Richard's 11th straight start in which he lasted at least six innings. It was the most runs he has allowed in that stretch, though it comes on the heels of his giving up four runs in seven innings at Texas last week.
With a preposterous level of futility in the early innings, the Padres left themselves vulnerable to a comeback.
They had runners at the corners with no outs in the first inning but didn't score. They loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning and didn't score.
In the first, Travis Jankowski stole second but failed to go to third on an overthrow that bounced into center field because he stumbled getting up after his slide. He went to third on the next pitch, but ended up stranded there when Manuel Margot was caught stealing and Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers struck out.
A Jankowski single followed a lead-off walk by Freddy Galvis and a single by Austin Hedges in the third. With the bases loaded, Margot bounced a ball back to pitcher Chris Bassitt, who threw home for the force. Hosmer followed with a grounder to first baseman Matt Olson, who also threw home for an out. Myers struck out for the second time.
In between those fruitless forays, Spangenberg was doubled off first base to end the second inning, having gone too far on Jose Pirela's soft liner directly at Olson.
The Padres went up 2-0 in the fifth when Jankowski singled for the third time and went to third base on a single by Margot. Hosmer's groundout to first base scored Jankowski, and Myers followed with a double to bring home Margot.
Myers would have one of the Padres' two hits in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.
They have been so bad of late that they actually raised their team batting average by three points and their average with runners in scoring position by a point on Tuesday.
