LOS ANGELES — With the battle for the top of the National League West on a razor-thin margin, the San Diego Padres made too many early mistakes in a 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

Both sides had opportunities in the first inning, but the Padres (69-54) ran into outs and the Dodgers (70-53) cashed in on early wildness by starter Dylan Cease. Then in the second the hosts took advantage of a rare error in the San Diego outfield.

“That was an odd game,” said manager Mike Shildt. “Not happy to get thrown out, we had a plan, they made some plays and when you’re down it hurts a little bit more. It’s an odd game when you out-hit a team and lose 6-0.”

Fernando Tatis Jr. worked the count full in the game’s opening at bat before lining a single to right field, and then was thrown out trying to steal second by catcher Will Smith. Luis Arraez followed up with a ground-rule double and Manny Machado hit an infield single, but with two down the duo tried a double-steal and Smith again was able to throw out Machado at second.

Then Xander Bogaerts led off the second inning with a single, but was also thrown out trying to steal second. The Padres hadn’t been caught stealing three times in a game since May 22, 2019, which is one off the franchise single-game record (4) that had happened five times previously.

Coming into the game Smith had allowed a National League-most 60 stolen bases, but broke the tie with Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto to assume the Senior Circuit lead and tie Boston’s Carlos Narváez with a Majors-best 24 caught stealing.

Meanwhile the Dodgers had their first three batters walked, with the San Diego starter missing low and to the left of the zone. In the 37-pitch first inning, only 16 pitches were in the zone, with the four-seam fastball getting the most usage but it found the zone on just 9 of 22 times.

“Dylan’s been good since the All Star break, he wasn’t as sharp tonight, I’m not going to be overly concerned about it,” Shildt said. “The back of the baseball card proves a lot of positive things, so (Cease) will be back out there sooner than later and I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Teoscar Hernández hit a one-out sacrifice fly, then Andy Pages drew another full-count walk — the third of the four freebies by Cease on a payoff pitch in the inning. The four walks in the first were most in a single inning in Cease’s career. Michael Conforto followed up by hitting a two-RBI single to right field to give LA an early 3-0 lead.

Then in the second, with one out Shohei Ohtani and with two down Smith both walked again. It was made to hurt when Freddie Freeman hit a warning track fly ball to right-center field that Jackson Merrill could not make the catch on for his first error of the season. The ball bounced free after a failed squeeze while still on the move, which allowed both runners to score.

“Our defense has been outstanding, those guys have been phenomenal and our outfield has been as good as anybody in the league. Some days balls fall,” Shildt said.

Cease’s evening came to an end with 3 ⅓ pitched, having allowed two hits and five runs (three earned) while walking six and striking out two as he took his 11th loss of the season — the righty has yet to win a road start this season. The six base on balls were the most he’s had as a member of the Padres and most since he equaled his career high of seven freebies as a member of the White Sox during the 2023 season.

With four hits over their first five at bats, the rest of the way San Diego would only manage a one-out Tatis double off starter Blake Snell, who earned his third win, in the sixth that ended with the right fielder stranded at third. Then Ramón Laureano had a one-out single against reliever Edgardo Henriquez that ricocheted off first base, but he would not advance.

The Padres fell back into second place  by a game in the NL West with the loss, giving the Dodgers a 7-2 edge in the season series with a 44-39 edge in runs scored.

Game three of the series will see Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.61 ERA) get the start for San Diego against Los Angeles starter Tyler Glasnow (1-1, 3.08 ERA) with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. at Dodger Stadium.

This story was updated at 9:05 p.m.