Overrun costs Dodgers

SAN DIEGO -- Three weeks ago the San Diego Padres decided they’d rather have Jack Cassel on their pitching staff than David Wells.

Oh, it may not have been that clear-cut. After all, it wasn’t like the two were competing for the same job. But a day after the team designated the 44-year-old Wells for assignment last month, San Diego called the 27-year-old Cassel up from the minor leagues.

“They decided to make a judgment call,” Wells said.

Turned out to be good judgment based on what happened Friday at Petco Park where Wells, in his second start since joining the Dodgers, was held to a standoff by the rookie right-hander. Cassel, however, had the better supporting staff and that made the difference in a 6-4 Padres win that pushed the Dodgers four games back in both the National League West standings and the NL wild-card race heading into the final month of the season.

Not that it was Wells’ fault. After drawing boos from the sellout crowd of 44,324 in his return to San Diego, the left-hander was the victim of bad luck in the Padres’ three-run first.

With two out and a runner at first, Wells got Khalil Greene to hit a towering fly to shallow center. But Juan Pierre lost the ball in the twilight sky shortly after it left the bat, racing in with his arms out and palms up as the ball landed 20 feet behind him for a run-scoring double.

Three pitches and another run-scoring hit later, the Dodgers, who had led 1-0, trailed, 3-1.

“Big games like this, it’s all about momentum,” Pierre said. “And I let the momentum swing back to their side. I take responsibility for this loss.”

That, however, was all the Padres got off their former teammate, with Wells setting down nine in a row and 13 of the last 15 batters he faced.

“I made the pitches I had to make. I kept them in the ballgame and we had a chance to win,” said Wells, who said he had mixed emotions facing the team that gave up on him less than a month ago.

“I thought I was out of the game,” he said. “I thought I’d be staying home cheering for these guys, not pitching against them.”

In a sense Cassel was pitching against his old team, too, since he grew up in Los Angeles where he and his buddies were die-hard Dodgers fans. Some, in fact, still are.

“A lot of buddies back home said they’d be rooting for Jack Cassel but not necessarily the team,” the rookie said of his first big league start.

Cassel gave the Dodgers chances, giving up 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings. But the right-hander toughened when he had to, turning a tie game over to a bullpen that has the lowest ERA in the National League. And that ERA fell a bit Friday with Doug Brocail, Heath Bell and Trevor Hoffman combining to hold the Dodgers to a run over the final 3 1/3 innings. Brocail got the win and Hoffman his 36th save.

The Dodgers bullpen? Well, not so much. Three of the first four batters to face Rudy Seanez in the sixth inning reached base with Adrian Gonzalez, who was hit by a pitch to open the inning, coming around to score the go-ahead run. The Padres then broke the game open an inning later, scoring twice off Seanez (6-3) and Joe Beimel on a four-pitch walk, Milton Bradley’s run-scoring double and a single by Gonzalez.

“That was the difference in the game,” Dodgers Manager Grady Little said. “Their bullpen did their job. Ours had a little bit of trouble getting it done.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com