The Padres lost their starting pitcher after three innings, pieced together the rest of the game with their best relievers, clawed back from a three-run deficit and then accepted a series of gifts to score the deciding run.

With a 4-3 victory, they evened their series with the Nationals.

The Padres were down 3-0 before scoring twice in the fourth and tying the game in the fifth on Martín Maldonado’s lead-off home run.

They began the sixth with three walks and scored on a groundball by Jose Iglesias that Nationals first baseman Nathaniel Lowe inexplicably chose to not throw home.

Padres rookie pitcher Ryan Bergert’s first Petco Park start ended one batter into the fourth inning when he took a 103.3 mph line drive off his right (throwing) forearm.

That forced manager Mike Shildt to improvise with his bullpen.

Adrián Morejón replaced Bergert and pitched the next two innings. Jason Adam began the sixth inning and got two outs deep in the seventh. Jeremiah Estrada ended that inning on two pitches and breezed through the eighth inning on eight pitches.

Robert Suarez worked a 1-2-3 ninth, moving into a tie for the MLB lead with his 22nd save of the season.

The Padres entered the game having lost 12 of their previous 19 games. They began the night six games above .500 overall (42-36) but five games worse than .500 (28-33) since starting the season 14-3.

That included their dropping Monday’s game against the Nationals, a team with much promise for the future and virtually none for this season.

The Nationals can hit. They are ranked higher than the Padres in virtually every offensive category.

But they arrived in San Diego having lost 13 of 15.

Their starting pitcher on Monday, Mitchell Parker, had a 4.59 ERA and pitched into the seventh inning before allowing a third run. Trevor Williams, a Rancho Bernardo High graduate, brought a 5.54 ERA into his start for them on Tuesday. Their bullpen entered the game with a 5.95 ERA, better only than the Athletics and by only one hundredth of a point.

It was the Padres’ bullpen that could take a large portion of credit Tuesday.

Bergert, whose first four starts were on the road and were all against contending teams, allowed a baserunner in every inning he pitched Tuesday.

Five straight Nationals reached base with one out in the second inning, and two of them scored.

Bergert was not locating his pitches anywhere close to where he wanted them in that stretch, as the bottom three batters in the Nationals order began that rally.

Daylen Lile’s single up the middle was followed by a first-pitch double lined down the left field line by Riley Adams and then a sacrifice bunt by Jacob Young that scored Lile and got Young on first base when Bergert chose to throw home to try to get Lile.

Walks to CJ Abrams and James Wood first loaded the bases and then brought in Adams before Bergert retired the next two batters.

Bergert was at 62 pitches at the start of the fourth, so he was trending toward a shorter night.

But a rocket off the bat of Young ended his night prematurely.

Head athletic trainer Mark Rogow ran to the mound, and Bergert accompanied him off the field no more than a minute later.

Morejón, a left-hander, was brought in to face the top of the Nationals lineup, which features four left-handed batters.

Morejón did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield, but the runner he inherited scored when Abrams dribbled a ball at 57 mph to second base for an infield single and Woods it a ball into the ground that rolled up the line and left Morejón with no choice but to get the out at first and concede the run.

Luis Arraez lofted a one–out single into right field with one out in the bottom of the fourth and went to third on Gavin Sheets’ ground-rule double. Xander Bogaerts’ slow roller to third base scored Arraez before Jake Cronenworth lined a double down the right field line to score Sheets.

Maldonado lined the first pitch from Williams in the fifth inning to the seats beyond left field.

Williams began the sixth with a pair of four-pitch walks, to Sheets and Bogaerts. His replacement, Cole Henry, walked Jake Cronenworth after getting ahead 1-2.

Iglesias then hit a ball to the right side that Lowe fielded and appeared set to throw home, as Sheets was barely a third of the way down the line. But Lowe instead tucked the ball and ran toward first base to get Iglesias as Sheets crossed the plate with the go-ahead run.

©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.