PHOENIX _ Wil Myers' three home runs could not help the Padres on Saturday.
On Sunday, in the 16th inning of a game that took five hours and 31 minutes, Myers blasted a full-count pitch from Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Jeff Mathis over the wall in center field for the deciding run in a 4-3 victory that ended a grueling and largely unsuccessful stretch of games played mostly on the road.
Brad Hand, who found out in the morning he would be the Padres' All-Star representative, earned the victory at the end of a game that spanned the early afternoon into the evening.
In navigating his second scoreless inning, Hand got three outs after a lead-off double by Jake Lamb.
The Padres bullpen _ all of it _ strung together 11 scoreless innings in the stead of struggling starter Clayton Richard.
Jeff Mathis, who had caught the first 15 innings, came on to pitch the 16th and retired Travis Jankowski and Carlos Asuaje before Myers hit the ninth pitch he saw for his fourth home run in two days, the first three coming in a 20-5 loss.
The victory was just the Padres' second on this trip and sixth in their past 22 games.
It avoided a seventh straight series loss.
The game also ended a stretch in which the Padres played 23 of 28 games on the road. After winning five of the first eight, the Padres won just four more times. They went 9-14 on the road.
It seemed the Padres did all they could to stay in the game and also everything to not get the win.
They failed to score in the top of the 11th after having Manuel Margot on second base with no outs.
In the bottom of the 11th, Miguel Diaz struck out the first two batters he faced before Jeff Mathis laced a double to the corner in left field. Diaz, called up from Double-A on Sunday morning, then struck out Chris Owings on a curveball that bounced in the dirt, off catcher Austin Hedges and to the left side of the plate, allowing Owings to run to first. Diaz got out of the inning by striking out Diamondbacks lead-off hitter Jon Jay.
Following a perfect 12th by Diaz, Cory Spangenberg led off the 13th with a bunt single and, after Freddy Galvis' fly out to right field, went to second base on Manuel Margot's groundout to the pitcher. Austin Hedges was intentionally walked before A.J. Ellis' fly out to deep center field left.
Phil Hughes retired the Diamondbacks in order in the 13th.
Wil Myers walked with two outs in the 14th and stole second base before Eric Hosmer grounded out.
Robbie Erlin got out of the 14th by getting a double play grounder from Jay. The Padres put yet another on second base with fewer than two outs when Galvis walked and Margot singled, his fifth hit of the game. Austin Hedges then popped out in foul territory behind the plate and pitcher Tyson Ross, pinch-hitting because the Padres were out of position players, struck out to leave the Padres 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position in the game.
The Diamondbacks were 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Neither starting pitcher was in total control of the flight of their pitches Sunday.
Zack Greinke took 29 pitches to get through the first inning and left with one out in the fifth having thrown 94 pitches.
Richard lasted a full five, and by that time it felt as if he'd thrown a lot more and should have been scorched for more than the three runs the Diamondbacks pushed across.
Richard hit Jay twice, walked four batters and allowed five hits. Two of the walks and one of the time he hit Jay led to runs, but Richard twice got out of innings with help from his old friend, the double play.
Still, the veteran took the unusual measure of throwing in the bullpen after being pulled, evidently trying to work through whatever mechanical issue has plagued him the past three starts. Especially with his slider, the usually precise lefty has been erratic. He hit three batters in Texas on June 27 and walked five Tuesday in Oakland.
The Padres staked Richard to a 1-0 lead in the first when Asuaje singled and Hosmer broke an 0-for-20 skid with a double.
The Diamondbacks scored twice in the third when Richard loaded the bases with two walks and hit batter and A.J. Pollock singled to bring in two of those runners.
Ketel Marte walked to start the fourth inning and scored on Jeff Mathis' double to make it 3-1.
Two-out singles by Galvis, Margot and Hedges got the Padres to 3-2. Margot doubled with one out in the sixth, the second of his three hits, and scored on pinch-hitter Jose Pirela's single.
The Padres would get just two hits over the next five innings.
The Diamondbacks had just one hit from the sixth through ninth innings before Paul Goldschmidt doubled with one out in the 10th inning off Matt Strahm, who had pitched a perfect ninth. Strahm then struck out John Ryan Murphy and got Steven Souza on a grounder.
