SAN DIEGO _ They were relentless enough this time.
With Hunter Renfroe's pinch-hit walk-off grand slam, the Padres on Sunday beat the Dodgers 8-5, salvaging a game and earning the right to say they can play with the Dodgers.
After losing leads in they never regained in the first two games of the series and falling by one run, they lost another lead Sunday and then took it back on the game's final pitch.
Eric Hosmer led off the ninth with a single through the left side. Manuel Margot moved him over and reached based with a perfect bunt down the third base line. Wil Myers dropped another bunt to where no one was standing at shortstop to lead the bases with none out.
Kenley Jansen, who earned the save Friday and Saturday, struck out Greg Garcia and got Francisco Mejia on a pop fly.
Renfroe then turned on a 93 mph cutter and sent it 429 feet, into the left field seats.
With the ball still in the air, Dodgers left fielder Joc Pederson began walking in and Renfroe turned to the dugout and raised his hands.
The Padres ended up dropping just one game in the standings over the three games. They are in third place in the National League West, trailing the division-leading Dodgers by 2 { games.
Their victory owed to them doing their best Dodgers impression at the plate, especially the past two days, putting together good at-bats throughout, getting two-strike hits, creating runs.
For the third straight game, the Padres took a lead in the first inning.
This time they kept scoring, building their biggest cushion of the series with a run in the first, another in the second and two in the fourth.
It's an uncomfortable thing, leading the Dodgers.
Sunday, they scored three times in the fifth, and Chris Taylor's two-run homer off Robbie Erlin in the eighth inning put them Dodgers up 5-4.
Sunday's crowd of 44,473 was as representative as any of the weekend, likely with a few more Dodgers fans than Padres. The three-day total of 133,456 was a three-game record for Petco Park, breaking the mark of set 133,311 set when the Red Sox visited from June 22-24, 2007.
In front of the alternatingly enthusiastic crowds, the Padres (19-16) played with the team they're perpetually chasing, confirming they are edging closer and learning they can have that something more required to challenge the six-time defending NL West champions.
Unlike last year, when the Dodgers won 14 of the team's meetings and 10 of those victories came by four runs or more, the Padres lost by a run the first two games before winning by a run on Sunday.
Sunday was just the Padres' 20th victory in their past their past 60 games against the Dodgers.
Franmil Reyes gave the Padres a 1-0 lead _ and retook the team lead with his ninth home run of season _ in the first inning. The blast to the Jalisco Estrella Landing above the second deck of seats beyond left field was estimated by Statcast to have traveled 458 feet, the longest hit by a Padres player this season.
After Garcia worked a one-out walk in the second inning, Mejia drove him home with his first career triple, off the wall in right field to make it 2-0.
A lead-off walk by Eric Hosmer and one-out walk by Wil Myers started a two-run fourth inning for the Padres. Hosmer came around on Garcia's double off the right field wall, which sent Myers to third. Mejia's sacrifice fly to right field gave the Padres a 4-0 lead.
