Andy Green mixed up his lineup a bit as his squad opened up its third leg of a nine-game road trip in Tampa.
Alexei Ramirez served as the designated hitter, Christian Bethancourt started in left field, and Wil Myers got the nod in right field against his former team – in the same park where he made his major league debut.
This time it didn’t work.
San Diego managed only three hits and ultimately lost 8-2 to the Rays.
Drew Smyly was a thorn in San Diego’s side, allowing just one hit in seven frames.
Smyly’s only mistake came to the second batter he faced in the first inning. Ramirez sliced a 1-1 pitch over the left-field wall to give the Padres an early 1-0 lead.
That advantage evaporated quickly though because by the time the second inning was over, Luis Perdomo had hit a batter with the bases loaded and given up a two-run homer to Logan Forsythe.
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Perdomo’s record fell to 5-7 after the loss. He finished with five strikeouts, and allowed three earned runs, five hits and three walks in 5.2 innings of work.
Tampa Bay extended its lead by tacking on five more runs against Padres reliever Leonel Campos in an ugly 8th inning.
Kevin Kiermaier provided the exclamation point with a three-run bomb that traveled 401 feet and made it 8-1 Rays.
Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte added a solo shot in the 9th to close out the scoring but it was basically garbage time by then.
The loss drops San Diego to 2-5 on the current road trip which ends Wednesday.
The Padres will try again Tuesday as Edwin Jackson takes the hill. Tampa Bay is slated to start Blake Snell in the 4:10 p.m contest.
