DENVER _ The Padres entered Saturday's game with the National League's second-best record and having been rewarded by their general manager earlier in the day with the kind of trade a contender makes.
Then they went out and played for a good portion of the game as if it was just any other late-August contest for a team that hasn't been to the postseason in three presidential administrations.
Maybe they will play their first playoff game since 2006 because of what they did later, as they have so many times this season.
But on this night, a slow start and sudden ending doomed them, as pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy gave the Rockies a 4-3 victory with a walk-off single against Craig Stammen, the Padres' seventh pitcher of the game.
The ninth inning began with Ryan McMahon's single that bounced off the mound on its way into center field. Garrett Hampson followed with a walk. McMahon was forced out at third on a bunt play before Murphy singled to left-center to bring in Hampson.
Antonio Senzatela shut out the Padres for seven innings before they scored three runs against Carlos Estevez to tie the game 3-3 in the eighth.
The comeback _ and a chance at their 15th come-from-behind victory _ began with Fernando Tatis Jr.'s walk. Manny Machado followed with a single. Both scored on Jake Cronenworth's two-out double down the right field line, and Wil Myers followed with a single that drove in Cronenworth.
To that point, there was blame and regret to go around.
The Rockies had extended their lead to 3-0 by scoring two runs off Luis Patino and Matt Strahm in the seventh inning.
But the bullpen, which will get a boost from Trevor Rosenthal, the Royals closer acquired via trade on Saturday, is what kept the Padres in the game.
A night after getting a season-high 19 hits, the Padres had one hit in each of the first six innings against Senzatela but couldn't do anything against him. In part, that was because their runners kept disappearing.
Mostly, the Padres ran the bases like they forgot the rules.
In two of the first three innings, they made an out that could have been avoided by not running too aggressively.
Trent Grisham led off the game with a double but made the second out of the inning by getting thrown out at third base on Machado's grounder to shortstop.
In the third inning, after his one-out single, Luis Torrens ran a bit too far toward second base on Grisham's hard fly ball to right field and was doubled up trying to get back to first.
It was almost a trifecta to start the game.
In the second inning, Greg Garcia appeared picked off between first and second but was safe when shortstop Trevor Story dropped a throw to second base.
Torrens was doubled up again at first base to end the fifth inning, though the culprit was a 102-mph line drive right at first baseman Josh Fuentes, who was standing near the bag.
The inability to score stung on a night their relievers, who have shouldered a significant amount of blame this season, did more than enough to help the Padres win.
Michel Baez allowed a run on three hits in the third inning before Luis Perdomo relieved him with one out. Perdomo got out of the inning on two pitches when Nolan Arenado lined a ball to center field that Grisham caught and threw to first to double up Story, who had been running on the pitch.
Perdomo then took just seven pitches to get through the fourth inning, running his streak of scoreless innings to seven.
Patino followed with a scoreless fifth and sixth innings before Matt Kemp reached down to slice a fastball at the shins into right field for a broken-bat single.
That run, in the person of pinch-runner Brendan Rodgers came around against Strahm. That ended Patino's run of 5 1/3 innings without allowing a run. Even so, the rookie has allowed two runs in his past 9 2/3 innings after allowing five runs in his first 3 2/3 innings.
Strahm, who had allowed one run on three hits in his previous 11 2/3 innings, gave up a flared single to left field by McMahon and bounced a wild pitch that allowed both runners to advance. Hampson's groundball then bounced high into the air after hitting third base, bringing home Rodgers.
With two outs, Raimel Tapia made it 3-0 by driving in McMahon with a grounder down the third base line against a shifted Machado.
Pierce Johnson got the final out of the seventh. Drew Pomeranz, who came off the injured list Saturday, pitched a scoreless eighth.
For all their troubles this season, which has seen them post a collective 5.35 ERA that ranks seventh worst in the majors, Padres relievers have done well when called on to cover an entire game.
They had a 3.60 ERA and won three of the first four bullpen games. In three other games in which they were asked to cover more than six innings because a starter could not make it out of the third, the bullpen had a 3.46 ERA in 19 2/3 innings.
