This futility vs. Dodgers confounding and costly

None of it matters — the mountain of quality starts, the NL Mvp-contending chops of Manny Machado, clawing to keep pace without Fernando Tatis Jr. — unless the Padres find a way to beat the Dodgers.

It’s that simple. It’s that exasperating.

Los Angeles is the undeniable measuring stick in the NL West. Some swear each game is just one of 162, right? Nonsense. Not when it’s the Dodgers. Not while floundering in head-to-head meetings to the absurd tune of losing 14 of the last 15.

And not when the Dodgers play in-game Home Run Derby, 16 days before hosting the real one, with three in a stretch of six first-inning pitches against Yu Darvish, as they did Saturday in a 7-2 stroll at Dodger Stadium.

“At some point in time, if we’re going to go where we need to go, we need to beat these guys,” manager Bob Melvin said.

Truer words, never spoken. Right now, it would be a novel approach to pair some actions with them.

The Dodgers are missing Mookie Betts, Walker Buehler and Dustin May ... and find a way. The Padres are missing Tatis with a hobbled Machado ... and, in this series, keep trying to find a clue.

L.A. anchors Justin Turner, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger entered the game hitting a combined .201 this season. Turner belted two home runs in a win on Thursday after hitting just four this season. Muncy and Bellinger, right on cue, homered on Friday.

In Game 3, it seemed like every Dodger might launch a ball into orbit 12 pitches into it.

“I don’t think I can give you a good answer on that,” said Darvish, asked about

the Dodgers’ run as of late. “… At this point in time, they’re just a little up on us.”

The Padres, meanwhile? Offensive crickets. After a Nomar Mazara single drove in a run in the first inning of the opener, the team managed one run in the next 23 innings until Grisham’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly put a merciful end to the flailing on national TV.

The Dodgers kept piling on runs, each inning through the third. The Padres finished just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and 3-for-21 in the series with a game to go.

“We’re having a hard time beating these guys right now,” opening-game starter Joe Musgrove said before the game, showing some predictive powers for Game 3. “I think we’ve done a really good job on the defensive side of the ball this series and we’ve been throwing pretty well. It’s just the big swings.

“It’s been all home runs that have hurt us.”

On Saturday, that hurt continued its unrelenting march. This series has felt like the cringey old days, when the Dodgers did as they pleased, cruised comfortably and found little need to launder uniforms.

The Padres did not lose Saturday because Jose Azocar looked as if he was using an oven mitt to field fly balls in right field. The rookie committed a groan-worthy error in the fourth inning after what should have been an error, sun-field or otherwise in the second, before colliding with center fielder Trent Grisham to nearly allow a third ball to squirt free.

When the Padres managed their first run on Grisham’s sacrifice fly in the seventh, the Dodgers answered with two in the bottom of the inning.

This was a collective clubhouse dud.

“We’ve got to hit,” said Luke Voit, who homered and doubled while playing first base. “We’re not hitting very well right now. Our pitchers are giving us really good, quality starts and we’re only putting up one or two runs a game. It’s up to me and some of the other guys to pick it up.

“You’ve got to respect (the Dodgers’ recent domination). But we’re going to be just fine. It’s just a number. I know everybody’s going to rave about it, but we’ll get past it.”

In a four-game series now lost, it was hard to locate Voit’s optimistic other side of the tunnel without the Hubble Space Telescope.

Can this be turned around? It can, of course. The Padres won seven of the first 10 in 2021, before a freefall of nine straight losses. The return of Tatis, whenever that comes, completely changes the lineup and adds massive protection for others.

The rest of the dugout pieces have to show far more, though — more production, more pop, more big-moment fight — to reshape the feel of things between the teams. How can someone earn the respect of a supposed rival when things are this lopsided?

“We’ve got to weather the storm,” Musgrove said.

The dark-blue clouds seem to have no interest in lifting.

The Dodgers keep doing Dodger things, especially when the Padres are parked in the opposite dugout. They’re winning the small moments as much as the big ones.

“Even when you give 100 percent, sometimes things don’t go your way,” said Mazara, who chipped in a pinch-hit single in the seventh. “That doesn’t mean you’re going to quit.”

bryce.miller@sduniontribune.com