LOS ANGELES — What was a one-game lead in the NL West before a trip to Chavez Ravine is now a two-game deficit, as the San Diego Padres were swept with a 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

The Padres (69-55) stranded seven runners and finished 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, and battled back from an early four-run hole before Mookie Betts hit a solo home run off reliever Robert Suarez in the eighth inning for the decisive Dodgers (71-53) run.

“We didn’t play as well as we’d like to have and the series didn’t go like we wanted it to, (but) we know what we’re capable of, this team is in more than a great place,” said manager Mike Shildt.

Jackson Merrill was replaced after striking out in his second at bat of the game in the fourth inning and was replaced by Gavin Sheets.

“He’s been dealing with an ankle that’s been bothering him a little bit,” Shildt said, noting that the Padres don’t expect it to linger beyond a day-to-day thing. “It’s kind of a stickier batter’s box I guess, when he turned it tweaked yesterday and (was) a little ginger in the first couple at bats and didn’t look quite right so (we) just wanted to stay ahead of it and get him out of there.”

Manny Machado came up empty in all five of his at bats and finished the series 1-for-12 at the dish after picking up hits in nine of the previous 12 games in August. He has not added to his team-leading 72 RBIs since the second of the month.

“The confidence of this team is high for a lot of reasons and a big part of that reason is Manny Machado… you can blink and I’m pretty confident within a week or so we’ll be talking and be like ‘Man, Manny’s got eight RBIs in the last five days,'” Shildt said. “He did get a couple tough pitches… in his first at bat they’re pitching him tough, that’s pretty clear, Manny looked like a guy they were targeting that was not going to beat them.

“He did a nice job of staying in the strike zone, and unfortunately some pitches that are outside the strike zone got called on him, which again is unfortunate when they’re not trying to throw strikes all the time to him, they’re taking their chances, and to get rewarded on balls that were outside the zone is a little frustrating.”

Pinch hitter Jose Iglesias had tied the game in the eighth inning when he replaced Jake Cronenworth, hitting a ground out to shortstop that scored Xander Bogaerts. The Padres shortstop reached by being hit by reliever Alexis Díaz’s third pitch, then Ramón Laureano hit a one-out double.

The tie didn’t survive the leadoff batter in the Dodgers’ half, as Betts turned on an inside fastball and hit it out to left field for his 13th home run of the season. It was just the third depth charge allowed Suarez this season and first since blowing a save against the New York Mets on July 28, with Suarez taking his fifth loss after pitching the eighth in a non-save situation.

After falling behind 4-0 in the first inning, San Diego slowly but surely climbed back into the game by scratching across runs over four innings.

Cronenworth led off the third inning with a walk and advanced to third when Freddy Fermin hit it off the base off the wall in right-center field, but was thrown out by Andy Pages trying to stretch it to a double. Fernando Tatis Jr. brought Cronenworth home on an RBI double, but would be left stranded at third base.

Then in the fifth inning Ramón Laureano went the other way with an elevated fastball by starter Tyler Glasnow, hitting it off the top of the wall in right-center and out for his 19th home run of the season.

The Padres clawed across another run in the sixth as Gavin Sheets led off the inning with a double off reliever Anthony Banda. He would score when Ryan O’Hearn hit a one-out double to right field that trimmed the deficit to one run.

Los Angeles scored the initial four of their runs in the first inning, as Freddie Freeman hit his 15th home run of the season to bring in Shohei Ohtani after a leadoff single and Betts on a walk. Andy Pages fouled off a pair of 0-2 offspeed offerings before crunching a low splitter out to left field for his 20th long ball.

Starter Yu Darvish settled in after the rocky opening inning, allowing three hits and four runs over his four innings pitched with five strikeouts and a pair of walks. Jason Adam pitched a scoreless inning with two K’s, while Jeremiah Estrada gave up two hits in ⅔ an inning pitched and Adrian Morejon had two punchouts in 1 ⅓ innings.

The Dodgers used six pitchers, with starter Glasnow going five innings with six hits and a run allowed while striking out eight and walking one. Alex Vesia earned the win by pitching the 1 ⅔ innings, and did not allow a hit while getting a strikeout to end the game for his third win.

San Diego returns from the seven-day road swing for a seven-game home stand, beginning with a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants as part of 13 games in 13 days. On Monday, the Padres will send Nestor Cortes (1-1, 5.71 ERA) to the hill against Robbie Ray (9-6, 2.98 ERA) for the 6:40 p.m. first pitch at Petco Park.

This story was updated at 4:38 p.m.