A disastrous fifth inning doomed the Giants in San Francisco's 8-4 loss to the San Diego Padres on Thursday afternoon at Petco Park.

The San Diego Padres (71-56) and San Francisco Giants (61-66) will meet on Thursday at PETCO Park, with first pitch at 4:10 p.m. ET. The Padres are the home favorite (-139) versus the Giants (+118). The Padres will start Dylan Cease (5-11) against the Giants and Justin Verlander (1-9).

The Padres snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Giants to make this four-game series a little more interesting. San Diego is now 4-1 versus San Francisco over the last 10 days, but 1-4 since the three-game set with the Giants.

Gavin Sheets hit two of San Diego's four home runs and drove in four runs, and Fernando Tatis Jr. robbed Giant's Rafael Devers of a homer.

The San Diego Padres took the series over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday, winning three of four games despite playing the entire set without star centerfielder Jackson Merrill. The 22-year-old exited Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers early with a bone bruise in his left ankle, after initially tweaking it a couple of games prior.

Petco park erupted in boos after a security guard brutally tackled a San Diego Padres kid who ran out on the field.

A good sign for the Padres beyond their 8-4 victory Thursday was how manager Mike Shildt used his bullpen with his team up four runs against a subpar Giants offense. Shildt deployed only high-leverage arms over the final four innings. This was a public show of good late-season health among four key pitchers.

The Padres capitalized on some sloppy Giants defense in a win over San Francisco, setting up another 1st place battle with the Dodgers.