Weaver Chased at Petco

It’s too early to tell whether the Dodgers will be as uncomfortable in the San Diego Padres’ new home as they were in their neighbor’s former residence.

What is known is that the Dodgers’ first visit to Petco Park was painfully like old times for them Tuesday night in an 8-3 loss before 35,156.

The Padres again were rude hosts to the Dodgers while chasing starter Jeff Weaver in a six-run fourth inning, breaking open the first game of a three-game series in the impressive $474-million facility.

Shawn Green provided a highlight for the Dodgers with a towering solo home run to right-center in the seventh inning, but they lost for the eighth time in their last 11 games in San Diego, escaping Qualcomm Stadium but not the Padres.

“We don’t play well here,” said catcher Paul Lo Duca, whose second-inning single gave the Dodgers their only lead, 1-0.

“They just always seem to play us tough here, but we need to start winning here because we’re going to play here [eight] more times. Hopefully, we can in a new ballpark. Tonight, it was just one bad inning.”

Weaver got off to a dream-like start in his Dodger debut last Wednesday against San Diego at Dodger Stadium, pitching seven strong innings in a no-decision as the Dodgers won, 2-1, in 11 innings.

It was exactly the beginning Weaver and the Dodgers had hoped for as the right-hander began the process of reviving his career after a bad experience with the New York Yankees. Tuesday’s performance wasn’t as encouraging.

Weaver wore down in the fourth under a barrage of singles. After appearing to be in good form through the first three innings, he wound up with an eight-hit, six-run outing in 3 2/3 innings.

“I don’t think that Weav threw the ball all that badly,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “However, in the fourth inning, he had pitchers’ counts, but he left a number of breaking balls in the zone with two strikes.

“Most of them were hit, hit hard and hit for base hits.... Six runs in one inning is a lot of runs to come back from.”

Leading, 1-0, Weaver contributed to his problems by walking Mark Loretta to start the fourth, and then came the hits. Five consecutive singles later, the Padres had a 4-1 lead. Ryan Klesko and Jay Payton contributed RBI hits and Ramon Hernandez delivered a two-run single.

Pitcher Adam Eaton helped himself by driving in a run with a groundout, and Sean Burroughs capped the big inning and ended Weaver’s work with another run-scoring single.

Jose Lima, scheduled to start Saturday against the San Francisco Giants, got Loretta for the final out as San Diego sent 10 batters to the plate.

Weaver said he recognized the problem but didn’t adjust fast enough.

“Simply just not making the in-inning adjustment,” said Weaver (0-1), whose earned-run average went from 1.29 to 5.91. “It was pretty obvious that they were either sitting off-speed, or I was showing something from the stretch that they were recognizing off-speed.

“I made quite a few quality pitches, a slider off the plate away, that they were just going the other way with, getting their singles and not trying to do too much. I just stayed on the outer side of the plate too much, and didn’t throw inside like I did the first time [against the Padres]. They put something together and I didn’t do the job of stopping it.”

Meanwhile, Eaton (1-0) enjoyed his second consecutive quality start against the Dodgers.

The right-hander gave up six hits and two runs in seven innings, though Green connected against him in the seventh for a homer estimated at 420 feet. Eaton improved to 5-1 with a 2.13 ERA in 12 career starts against the Dodgers.

“We don’t know what it is” about playing the Padres in San Diego, third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “I don’t know what it is, it just happens.

“Weaver was throwing a nice game ... it was just one inning. But almost every pitch he threw, they were on it. And Eaton always pitches well against us.”