Jackson Merrill slugged his ninth home run of the season in the eighth inning to put the finishing touches on the Giants (59-61) defeat. San Diego improved to 68-52 and pulled into a tie with the Dodgers for first place in the NL West.

Jose Iglesias hit a two-run homer in the second inning, Jackson Merrill connected in the eighth for insurance, and the San Diego Padres beat the struggling San Francisco Giants 5-1.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the opponent San Diego Padres fans focus on, and for very good reason. Finishing ahead of Los Angeles would allow the Padres to skip the first round of the playoffs — that is,

San Francisco Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos was the subject of ridicule on Wednesday afternoon as he made a bizarre throw in the outfield.

Nick Pivetta allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings and Ramón Laureano had three of the Padres’ 14 hits as San Diego completed a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants with an 11-1 rout.

The Giants came into the week with a prime opportunity to try to claw back into the National League Wild Card race and gain some ground on one of the teams they were trying to chase down in the standings.

It didn’t just summarize this three-game series, one where the Giants (59-62) were swept by the Padres and lost their 13th home game in their last 14 tries — the first time that’s happened since the team moved to San Francisco.

San Francisco Giants enter home series against Tampa Bay on Friday having lost 13 of their past 14 games at Oracle Park.