Fernando Tatis Jr. rallies Padres in 9th to beat Pirates, who lose 7th in last 9 games

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to lose in unfathomable fashion, and their latest fiasco saw them waste a strong start by Bailey Falter and repeatedly come up empty with runners on base.

Manny Machado hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning, and Fernando Tatis Jr. scored the winning in the ninth as the San Diego Padres rallied for a 2-1 win Saturday before 17,675 at PNC Park. The start of the game was delayed by 1 hour, 42 minutes because of rain.

The Pirates (12-22) suffered their seventh loss in nine games, despite Falter throwing 59 of his 89 pitches for strikes with a season-best six strikeouts in seven innings, allowing one run on two hits and two walks.

Tatis Jr. hit a leadoff double to left, putting the Padres in scoring position to start the ninth inning. With one out, Tatis stole third base, putting the go-ahead run 90 feet from home plate.

David Bednar (0-3) got Machado looking at a 98-mph fastball for a called third strike, but when he threw a 1-0 curveball in the dirt for a wild pitch, Tatis raced home and his slide beat catcher Joey Bart’s tag for the go-ahead run to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead with two outs in the second inning, when Alexander Canario singled and Jared Triolo drew a full-count walk. Oneil Cruz smacked a single to right-center at an exit velocity of 118.4 mph to drive in Canario. It was Cruz’s hardest-hit ball that resulted in a hit this season, though he had a line drive clocked at 119.6 mph to end a 4-3 loss at the Los Angeles Angels on April 24.

The Pirates came up empty on scoring chances in each of the next three innings.

In the third, Enmanuel Valdez hit a two-out single to center and advanced to second on a passed ball but was thrown out at home by Brandon Lockridge while attempting to score on a Ke’Bryan Hayes single to center.

In the fourth, Triolo reached on a two-out throwing error by third baseman Machado and stole second base. Cruz drew a full-count walk to put a pair of runners on for Bryan Reynolds, who flied out to left.

But their biggest whiff came in the fifth, when Bart reached on a fielder’s choice, Hayes beat the throw on a dribbler to third and Adam Frazier drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Canario, batting .139 and starting in place of Tommy Pham, went down swinging at three consecutive sweepers by Randy Vasquez to end the frame.

Cruz drew a four-pitch walk — his third of the game — in the sixth, but Reynolds swung at a first-pitch slider and grounded into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Falter had allowed one walk and one hit and retired 11 consecutive batters when Machado drilled a 1-0 slider 391 feet down the left-field line for his third home run to tie the score at 1-1 in the seventh.