SAN DIEGO – On a night where it felt like rolling a rock up a hill, the San Diego Padres couldn’t get over the top in a 6-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Friday night at Petco Park.

San Diego (40-35) rallied from a four-run deficit to pull even at 4-4 after the seventh inning, but RBI singles by Salvador Perez and Drew Waters off Jason Adam in the eighth gave Kansas City (38-38) enough to extend their winning streak to four games.

“It’s that time of the year sometimes where guys are going out, pitching the best they can,” said bench coach Brian Esposito, who ran the game for the Padres with manager Mike Shildt serving a one game suspension. “A base hit, a walk, and then like (Kansas City) does when they get some guys moving they string a lot of hits together and do some things, so (Adam) was just the recipient of a good hitting team (that) found the barrel and found some grass.”

Xander Bogaerts tied the Padres franchise record with hits in eight straight at bats, connecting for three hits and drawing a walk in his first four plate appearances to extend the stretch dating to his ninth inning double on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

After going down 4-0 early the Brown and Gold plated runs in three straight innings to pull even, and Manny Machado hit his 12th home run of the season on an 0-2 pitch down the right field line in the ninth off Kansas City closer Carlos Estévez. But it felt like it could’ve been more.

Gavin Sheets knocked a two-out, two-RBI single, scoring Luis Arraez and Machado after the third baseman hit a ground rule double in the seventh. That was all as after a Bogaerts single put runners on the corners, Jake Cronenworth grounded out.

San Diego’s middle infielders generated the one run in the sixth with back to back singles, then Jose Iglesias hit a pinch-hit RBI single to score Bogaerts, but Elias Díaz grounded into an inning ending double play.

The rally started in the fifth first run when Trenton Brooks, slotted as the designated hitter, led off with his first career double and Tyler Wade hit a one-out infield single. Arraez roped a two-out single to right-center to bring Brooks home, but that would be it.

In all the Padres left 10 runners and stranded six in scoring position.

A night removed from being hit on his right wrist with a 93 MPH fastball, Fernando Tatis Jr. remained in his usual lead off spot and received a standing ovation for his first at bat. He had a pair of walks as well as having a fifth-inning liner to center field caught on a dive by Kyle Isbel.

It was a battling start for Nick Pivetta, who was visibly upset several times over the course of his 4 ⅔ innings. Though he was right around his season average of 65.3% strikes — he threw 54 on 84 pitches — control within the zone was an issue early.

“I wasn’t commanding the baseball when I needed to, got behind most of the guys and wasn’t executing pitches when I needed to,” Pivetta said.

There was the curveball left middle-middle in the first inning for Bobby Witt Jr., almost as if on a tee for the short stop to hit 401 feet out to left field just to the right of the golf ball. It was Witt’s 10th home run of the year and gave the Royals an early 1-0 lead.

In the scoreless second inning Jac Caglianone caught the curve for a double. Back-to-back singles to start the fourth too by Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino, but Pivetta was able to get out of the inning by getting a pair of infield outs sandwiched by Díaz catching Garcia stealing at third.

Then consecutive walks to start the fifth set the table for Jonathan India to tag a middle, belt-high fastball to left center for his fourth home run of the season and a 4-0 Kansas City lead. Garcia doubled with two outs, the third of four extra base hits to come off the curve, to end Pivetta’s evening with six hits allowed, three strikeouts and two walks.

India finished with three hits, with one being a double in addition to the deep ball. Reliever Lucas Erceg earned his second win of the season despite allowing the two runs on three hits and a walk in the seventh inning. Adam took his third loss of the season.

“Going down 4-0 early, coming off a tough series and then the guys fighting back and bouncing all the way back to tie the game, it’s just a testament to the guys in the clubhouse again and the staff,” Esposito said. “These guys come out, they do the best they can to compete with what they’ve got that night… 

“(Kansas City) is a good ball club, they pitch well, they swing the bats well and they go up four-nothing, that’s a moment where some teams might roll over and kinda pack it in, especially after traveling back late last night, but these guys didnt. They fought back and we used every bit of our 27 outs we had and down to the last one where we had an opportunity to tie the game.”

Game two will feature Dylan Cease (2-6, 4.69 ERA) getting the ball for the Padres, facing rookie lefty Noah Cameron (2-2, 1.91 ERA) with first pitch scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on Saturday at Petco Park. The game will be televised nationally on FOX.