A great start, bad finish

For the short term, at least, the back end of the Dodgers’ rotation might not be nearly as troublesome as the back end of their bullpen.

The Dodgers received six scoreless innings Tuesday night at Petco Park from starter Jason Schmidt in a spectacular return from a lengthy injury layoff and yet couldn’t capitalize when their late-inning relief faltered during a 1-0 loss to the San Diego Padres.

The eighth inning is usually the domain of Dodgers reliever Jonathan Broxton in a taut game. But with closer Takashi Saito sidelined by a sore hamstring, Manager Grady Little elected to bring Rudy Seanez back for a second inning.

“We were in a little bit different situation tonight,” Little said.

Seanez hit pinch-hitter Russell Branyan with a pitch with one out, and Branyan stole second before scoring on Marcus Giles’ single to center -- the Padres’ second and final hit of the game.

“We’re not going to live on two hits,” Giles said. “I promise you that.”

Closer Trevor Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth to record his 499th career save and help push San Diego into a tie with Arizona atop the National League West, a half a game ahead of the Dodgers. The surging Padres have won 11 of 14 games.

There was better news for the Dodgers when it came to their rotation. Making his first start since April 14, Schmidt gave up only one hit and three walks while striking out four.

With his fastball consistently reaching 89 mph and topping out at around 91 mph, Schmidt put to rest some of the concerns about his velocity and finished on a strong note, retiring the last seven batters he faced.

“I was happy just to be out there and back at it and getting results,” Schmidt said. “Hopefully, this is a building block and I work my way up from here.”

It was a giant turnabout for a pitcher who had made previous three starts as a Dodger, going 1-2 with a 7.36 earned-run average, before landing on the disabled list April 17 because of shoulder inflammation.

But he needed only 86 pitches to make it through a season-high six innings and escaped the only jam he faced when he worked his way out of a two-out, bases-loaded mess in the second.

“I was glad to see him come out strong like that,” Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said of Schmidt. “It’s going to help us out in the long run.”

The Dodgers had been a major league-best 13-4 in one-run games before Tuesday, but they couldn’t break through against Padres starter Chris Young, who pitched seven shutout innings to lower his major league-leading home ERA to 0.52.

Young got through a shaky but scoreless seventh in which the Dodgers had two hits and one weary baserunner. Martin drilled a leadoff single and tried to steal second on at least three occasions but was thwarted by a fly ball and a pair of foul tips.

Martin tried to go to third on Tony Abreu’s one-out single to right, but he slipped and was eventually tagged out in a rundown.

“I was going hard and my legs were getting a little heavy right there and I couldn’t keep my legs underneath me,” Martin said. “I’m sure running to second base 18 times didn’t help.”

Abreu was stranded at second after pinch-hitter Wilson Betemit walked and Juan Pierre grounded out to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com