SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres were not down by four runs after a half-inning on Friday, as they had been in the season opener. They got their third hit before the sixth inning. They got a lead and retook a lead.

Then the strength of their team withered and left them still seeking their first victory under new manager Craig Stammen.

The Detroit Tigers scored four times in the eighth inning off relievers Jeremiah Estrada and Wandy Peralta and held on for a 5-2 victory.

Estrada began the eighth with a strikeout before walking three consecutive batters and getting burned by Riley Greene’s slow-rolling single to shortstop that tied the game 2-2.

After Estrada struck out Spencer Torkelson, Peralta inherited the loaded bases and surrendered a two-run single on his 10th pitch to Kevin McGonigle and another run-scoring single to Dillon Dingler.

It was an inauspicious start for a bullpen that was by most measures the best in the major leagues in 2025 and is being counted on to be that good again this season.

The Padres had taken their second lead of the night on Ramon Laureano’s double off the base of the wall in right field, which scored Jackson Merrill to make it 2-1 in the sixth inning.

It was at least a salve for the Padres to see starting pitcher Michael King be able to grind through five-plus innings given that Nick Pivetta had allowed six runs in three innings at the start of Thursday’s 8-2 loss.

King, coming off a season in which injuries limited him to 15 starts and a spring training in which he allowed nine home runs in 17 2/3 innings, pitched around four walks, a hit batter and one single to get through five scoreless innings.

He was assisted on two of his six strikeouts by catcher Luis Campusano successfully challenging ball calls. The second of those overturned a ball four call that would have put runners at first and second. Instead, King ended the third inning by striking out Gleyber Torres.

A walk to Torres at the start of the sixth inning ended King’s night and — along with Manny Machado’s error — cost him the chance at a victory.

Adrian Morejón, who led the major leagues by stranding all but five of the 45 runners he inherited last season, replaced King and might have gotten out of the sixth without a run scoring if Machado had not mishandled a potential double play grounder by pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones.

That put runners at first and second with no outs. Morejón’s next pitch got a comebacker that he fielded and fired to second base to start a double play. That moved Torres to third, and he scored on a single by Torkelson.

King was also helped along the way by Merrill keeping the game 0-0 in the second inning by leaping above the short wall in right-center field to take away a home run from McGonigle.

Machado’s lead-off double in the fourth inning led to the Padres taking their first lead of the season.

Two singles that did not get out of the infield brought Machado home.

The first was a grounder down line by Merrill, who beat the throw from Torkelson, the first baseman, who had made a diving stop. Miguel Andujar followed with his first RBI with the Padres, a 105 mph grounder toward third base that McGonigle, playing in just off the grass, could not handle.

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