SAN DIEGO _ With an eye on testing the youth in San Diego, Andy Green juggled his rotation to ensure his three rookie starting pitchers would face the Dodgers next weekend in Los Angeles as they chase a sixth straight NL West crown.
Meantime, the last-place Rangers have been more than a handful for the Padres.
The AL West cellar-dwellers won a second straight game at Petco Park on Saturday night, blitzing the third-year manager's upstart bullpen in a 6-3 defeat that secured San Diego's third straight 90-loss season.
Four of those losses have been at the hands of the 84-loss Rangers, who lumped five runs together in the sixth inning after rookie starter Eric Lauer allowed a leadoff single to Elvis Andrus.
On Wednesday, Green's young relief corps took a star turn as four relievers _ rookie Trey Wingenter, rookie Robert Stock, rookie Jose Castillo and veteran Craig Stammen _ combined for nine straight strikeouts.
On Saturday, Wingenter walked the only batter he faced and Castillo doubled the number of hits he'd allowed over his previous 92/3 scoreless frames _ two _ in a meltdown punctuated by Robinson Chirinos' two-out, bases-clearing double to turn a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 deficit.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a run-scoring double, Delino DeShields walked and Shin-Soo Choo singled to push the Rangers' advantage to three before rookie Robert Stock entered to stop the bleeding.
The bullpen's setback wasted Lauer's look at his first win since coming within an out of shutting out the Dodgers on July 10. The 23-year-old rookie allowed two runs on three hits _ including Joey Gallo's second-inning homer _ and a walk and struck out four in five-plus innings.
The two earned runs are the only ones that Lauer has allowed in 14-plus innings since returning from a left forearm strain. He threw five no-hit innings against the Rockies on Aug. 30, four shutout frames at Cincinnati last week and had thrown 53 of his 81 pitches for strikes Saturday when Green turned to a bullpen to preserve a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning.
Lauer's next start is Friday in Los Angeles. Rookies Jacob Nix and Joey Lucchesi will also pitch in that series.
Eric Hosmer provided the Padres' only runs Saturday night, sending a three-run, opposite-field homer off the Western Metal Supply Co. building in the third inning off Ariel Jurado (4 IP, 3 ER), who followed opener Alex Claudio's one scoreless inning.
The blast was Hosmer's 17th of the year.
