SAN DIEGO _ For at least a morning, Trevor Hoffman, as only he can, delivered a change-up from Cooperstown to Petco Park as the early arrivals for a Sunday matinee soaked in the closing remarks from the Hall-of-Fame closer's induction speech.
"There are no shortcuts."
Not in life, no.
Not in baseball, certainly.
And most definitely not in rebuilds as the Padres are again learning the hard way in Year 2 of this reboot.
The latest setback came via a 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks, who beat up on rookie Joey Lucchesi just enough and had two eighth-inning replays go their way in sending the Padres to their fifth straight defeat and 29th in their last 38 games.
The first review overturned a safe call at second base, where Eric Hosmer attempted to sneak in ahead of Steve Souza's throw after watching Christian Villanueva's flyball to right field fall in safely.
The next ruled, by inches apparently, that Freddy Galvis' drive off the top of the wall in left field was a run-scoring double instead of a game-tying homer.
Diamondbacks reliever Archie Bradley ran with the momentum, striking out Carlos Asuaje and A.J. Ellis to end that threat and Brad Boxberger twirled a perfect ninth to send the Padres to a season-worst 24 games under .500.
Much of the losing of late is attributed to the worst month for San Diego starting pitching in the Petco Park era.
With Lucchesi allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings on Sunday, the rotation's ERA ballooned to 7.35 this month after posting a 3.65 ERA in June.
The next-worst mark?
A 5.98 ERA from Padres starters in June 2009.
The first pitcher to debut from the 2016 draft class, Lucchesi (5-6, 3.74) remains a bright spot this season even after giving up a season-high three homers Sunday.
The 25-year-old left-hander surrendered his first to Paul Goldschmidt after a one-out walk to Ketel Marte in the first inning. The second, from A.J. Pollock, arrived a half-inning after Wil Myers' two-run double tied the game in the third and a third, from Nick Ahmed, opened up a 5-2 lead in the fourth inning.
Lucchesi pitched into the fifth inning but was lifted after Goldschmidt's one-out, seeing-eye single put two runners on for Pollock.
Right-hander Jordan Lyles, called off his rehab assignment Sunday, struck out the next two batters to spare Lucchesi any more damage.
Lucchesi struck out three but allowed five runs on six hits and three walks in the start, his shakiest since allowing four runs in 1 2/3 innings on June 20 in his first start off the disabled list (hip).
