PITCHING PROBABLES: Padres: Nick Pivetta (9-2, 2.88 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 122 strikeouts); Nationals: MacKenzie Gore (4-8, 3.02 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 138 strikeouts) BOTTOM LINE: The Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres play on Sunday with the three-game series tied 1-1.

This is who the San Diego Padres are. This is how they lose. What they do has been enough to win more often than not this season. But what they don’t do is why they have lost more often than it seems they should.

The Nationals have found themselves in this position plenty of times over the last month-plus, having lost the first game of a series before bouncing back to win the next night, leaving the finale as the decisive rubber game.