PHOENIX _ Playing with their best hands tied to the bench, the Padres couldn't pull out another late victory or pull off a sweep of the Diamondbacks.
The Padres' most successful long road trip in almost six years concluded Sunday with a 8-4 loss to the Diamondbacks.
Before going 7-3 on this 10-game trek that began with three games in St. Louis and three in San Francisco before the four here, the Padres had not finished with a winning record on a road trip longer than eight games since July 2013.
Sunday, before the Padres' middle relief again failed it, old Eric Lauer mixed with new Eric Lauer, and the Diamondbacks took advantage of the Padres left-hander's lapse into bad habits.
The first Diamondbacks batter in four of Lauer's five innings reached base. Twice, it was pitcher Zack Greinke, and he scored both times.
Lauer, who last season allowed a .306 batting average to batters leading off innings but this year had allowed just four hits in 17 leadoff at-bats (.235), was pulled after five innings having allowed three runs on eight hits. The Diamondbacks' two hits in 13 at-bats with runners on base helped get the job done.
Greinke, who homered in one of his two at-bats against Lauer earlier this month, led off the third inning with a bloop single to center field and scored on Ketel Marte's two-out home run. Greinke doubled to lead off the fifth and scored on Ildemaro Vargas' two-out double.
Matt Wisler relieved Lauer in the sixth inning and allowed a two-out, three-run homer to pinch-hitter David Peralta. And aside from the possibility that inning would have been over if Machado had not been getting his first day off and been able to catch a line drive single by Adam Jones that caromed off fill-in third baseman Luis Urias' glove, it continued the Padres' middle relief problems.
Maybe it was the desert air.
In four games here, Robert Stock, Gerardo Reyes, Brad Wieck and Wisler allowed a combined 13 runs, 11 hits and six walks. That included a run on a single, a walk and a balk that Wisler yielded in the seventh.
It did not include Phil Maton's first pitch back in the majors being lined to the seats beyond right field at the start of the eighth inning.
Manuel Margot had staked the Padres a 1-0 lead four pitches into the game with a home run to left field. Fernando Tatis' team-leading fifth home run of the season in the fifth tied the game 2-2. The Padres pulled to 7-4 in the eighth on successive two-out hits _ a single by pinch-hitter Greg Garcia, double by Margot and single by Franmil Reyes.
