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Padres eliminated from postseason contention with loss to Braves

Denis Poroy / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The San Diego Padres were eliminated from the postseason race with their 10-8 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.

The loss drops San Diego to 6-15 in September, and it now sits 78-77 overall. It's a disappointing result for a club that had the second-best World Series odds in the National League during the preseason.

A fifth-inning Manny Machado grand slam put the Padres ahead 7-3, but the Braves answered back with four runs in the following inning. San Diego regained a one-run lead but closer Mark Melancon blew the save in ninth and Daniel Hudson allowed a pair of runs in the 10th to seal the loss.

This comes a week after Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. were seen having a heated confrontation in the dugout amid the team's struggles.

"We didn't play good baseball, and we got injured," Machado said of the team's disappointing season, according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.

The Padres entered August with a 61-47 record, and though that positioned them third in the NL West, they were in a solid spot to land the second wild-card spot.

The club's vaunted expectations coincided with a busy offseason during which it acquired starters Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Blake Snell in an attempt to build on San Diego's trip to the playoffs last year, its first since 2006.

The Padres also signed Korean infielder Ha-Seong Kim and Melancon, and they acquired Adam Frazier and Hudson prior to the trade deadline.

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