Ross D. Franklin / AP

The Padres’ once formidable lead in the NL West has crumbled, and the Giants are within striking range.

There also is a possibility they could get something down the stretch from rehabbing veteran Chris Young, who threw three innings in a Triple-A rehab outing Tuesday, but as Black warned: "It's unfair to place expectations on C.Y. at this point."

Latos, the dominating 22-year-old emerging ace, says he's 'perfectly fine' as far as his innings load goes for the rest of the season. And after watching him tie a career high with 10 strikeouts (including five in a row in the second and third innings) on Thursday, it's hard to argue with him. His fastball gun readings were consistently 94-97 mph.

But faced with an opportunity to score a go-ahead run, Black chose to pinch-hit Matt Stairs for Latos in the top of the seventh, and it worked. Stairs singled to put two runners on, and Will Venable followed with an RBI single to give the Padres a short-lived 2-1 lead.

The Padres have won 23 times when scoring three runs or less this season, so things couldn't have set up any better for a streak-breaking victory, right? But not this time. The half-inning that followed contained all that has turned against the Padres:

• A leadoff walk issued by Luke Gregerson.
• A potential double-play ball turned into a costly error when Miguel Tejada couldn't handle Everth Cabrera's hard, slightly-errant throw.
• A hard-smash single that Cabrera couldn't come up with cleanly.
• And then the clincher — a game-deciding grand slam by Brandon Allen, who earlier in his first game as a September call-up had climbed the chain-link fence in left field for a sensational catch.

"I don't think there has been one thing,'' Black said. "It's been a combination. You win as a team. You lose as a team. The pitching hasn't been real sharp, and we haven't outscored the opponent when we haven't pitched well.

"From a leadership position, you just continue to do what you do: coach, teach, encourage. We'll do what we've done all year as a coaching staff: use our roster, play our guys.

"It's just not happening for us right now. This happens to everybody. Things aren't going our way. You never want to go into a losing streak. We want to win. We'll snap out of it.''

The question is, when?

More news

Tony Gutierrez / AP

More heroics from Hamilton

Josh Hamilton fights off illness to hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning, lifting the Texas Rangers to an 8-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Angels win as Pujols HR streak up to 3 games

SEATTLE (AP) - Albert Pujols hit a home run in his third straight game and pinch hitter Alberto Callaspo came through with a grand slam in the sixth inning to give the Los Angeles Angels a 5-3 win over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

Headlines

• Label

Saltalamacchia's walkoff HR lifts Red Sox

Red Sox's Valentine calls out Rays' coaches

Teixeira hits 2 HRs as Yankees rout A's

HBT: Santana pitches first shutout in 2 years

Harper homers as Strasburg, Nats beat Braves

Buehrle, Marlins stay hot, beat Giants

Fielder's 4-hit game lifts Tigers over Twins

Fear of losing Montero leads D-backs to big deal