SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres returned to calm and cool San Diego and eventually warmed up Friday night.

But a comeback from four runs down was merely a setup to another letdown, as a Padres reliever melted down again.

The Royals scored twice in the eighth inning off Jason Adam and held on for a 6-5 victory Friday night at Petco Park.

Manny Machado’s home run leading off the bottom of the ninth against Royals closer Carlos Estévez got what remained of the sellout crowd rocking. But Gavin Sheets, Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth all popped out to end the game.

Friday was the seventh time in the past 10 games a Padres reliever has come in to protect a lead or keep a game tied and has failed in that effort.

Adam had converted two consecutive holds since failing to keep a game tied and losing a lead in successive appearances earlier this month. Friday night was his 38th appearance, two more than any other major league pitcher.

The loss dropped the Padres (40-35) out of playoff position for the first time this season, as they fell a half-game behind the St. Louis Cardinals (41-35) and dropped into a tie with the Milwaukee Brewers (40-35) for the National League’s final wild-card spot.

The Royals (38-38) jumped on Nick Pivetta early Friday before the Padres scored in three straight innings.

The Padres cut a 4-0 deficit to 4-1 with three hits in the fifth inning and got to 4-2 with three more hits in the sixth. They tied the game on a walk, a double and a single in the seventh.

Then Adam yielded a run on two hits and a walk before getting the first out in the eighth and another run after getting two outs.

The Padres put two runners on with one out in the bottom of the eighth before lead-off batter Fernando Tatis Jr. popped out and Luis Arraez grounded out.

This all came on the heels of a road trip that concluded late Thursday night after four days of drama in Los Angeles.

The wild four-game set, which saw the Dodgers come back to win three times, culminated Thursday with both benches and bullpens emptying when Tatis was hit by a pitch. Padres Manager Mike Shildt and Dave Roberts screamed at each other while being restrained and were both ejected and on Friday served one-game suspensions.

The Padres beat the Dodgers 5-3 on Thursday and returned home after the 2-5 road trip believing it might help them emerge from a June swoon that had seen them lose 10 of their 15 games leading into Friday.

The only extracurricular drama in the opener of a six-game homestand night was momentary — when a 92 mph sinker from Royals starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen sailed high and tight toward the spot where Tatis’ head was before he dropped quickly to the ground.

The home run was again stinging the Padres — the ones hit by their opponents and the ones the Padres are not hitting.

The long ball continued to creep back into Pivetta’s list of issues as well.

The Royals, who entered the game scoring just 28.5% of their runs via home run — the second-lowest rate in the major leagues behind the Padres’ 27.6% — got their first four runs on a pair of homers Friday.

Pivetta allowed one home run in his first five starts with the Padres but entered Friday having yielded one homer in eight of his past nine starts.

He reached that quota two batters in, when Bobby Witt Jr. hit a curveball over the first second of seats beyond left field in the first inning.

It was the first time all season Pivetta had thrown his curveball and had it hit over the outfield wall.

Pivetta was clearly frustrated with himself on the mound throughout the night and after getting back to the dugout following the top of the fourth, he repeatedly slammed his glove against the top of the bench.

Pivetta did not issue his first walk until the first batter of the fifth inning. He then walked the next batter and then gave up a one-out home run to Jonathan India.

A two-out double by Maikel Garcia would end Pivetta’s night.

Wandy Peralta took over and retired four straight batters to get through the sixth. Sean Reynolds worked a scoreless seventh.

Bogaerts singled in the second inning, walked in his next at-bat and singled again in the sixth and the seventh. That tied the Padres’ franchise record of eight hits in a span of eight at-bats.

The Padres, who got their first run in the fifth when Trenton Brooks led off with a double and scored on Luis Arraez’s single, drove Lorenzen from the game in the sixth.

Bogaerts’ one-out hit was the first of three straight singles by the Padres. Lorenzen would give up just that one and one by Cronenworth before being replaced by left-hander Angel Zerpa, who yielded pinch-hitter Jose Iglesias’ RBI single. But Elias Díaz followed by grounding a ball up the middle that Witt, the Royals’ shortstop, fielded to begin an inning-ending double play.

Tatis drew a one-out walk from reliever Lucas Erceg in the seventh before being forced out on Arraez’s grounder to second base. Machado followed with a ground-rule double before Sheets drove them both in with a single.

Bogaerts’ single moved Sheets to third, but Cronenworth grounded out.

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