A two-out walk in which Waldron threw three knuckleballs outside the zone and Rafael Devers’ home run in the first inning put the Red Sox up 2-0. They scored another two-out run in the third on a pair of singles and a passed ball on a knuckleball. The final run surrendered by Waldron was Jarren Duran’s homer leading off the fifth inning, the first Waldron knuckleball hit for a homer in 10 starts.

“That’s the first time I’ve gotten damaged by it,” Waldron said. “They did a good job attacking it. They approached it really well. I’ve got to commend that. I’ll bounce back. I’ve done it before.”

It was not a happy clubhouse. But the Padres headed to Texas, where they will have an off day before beginning a three-game series against the Rangers on Tuesday, feeling virtually no different about themselves than they did the day before.

“Since that last night in Philly we’re, what, 9-2,” Jake Cronenworth said, referring to a series in Philadelphia in which the Padres lost the first two games before winning the finale to stop a five-game losing streak. “That’s a pretty good stretch.”

The Padres had scored at least five runs in nine of their previous 10 games, winning every time they did so. They beat the Red Sox 9-2 on Friday and 11-1 on Saturday.

“You’ve got to look at the opposite side,” Manny Machado said. “We scored (a lot of) runs the last two days. … It’s the big leagues. They’re a good team over there.”

The Padres got their first batter on base in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Twice, a double-play grounder erased the runner. Twice, the lead runner got to second with one out and was stranded there. The other time, the runner was left at second after getting there with two outs.

The game began in a heat that was heavy with humidity and with distant clouds hinting at the thunderstorm approaching from the West.

By the third inning, the lights atop the tall towers around Fenway Park’s perimeter were having to do their job in the darkened afternoon. Rain began falling near the end of the fifth. Just after a flash of lightning elicited one of the biggest reactions of the day, Machado grounded out to end the sixth.

After stranding the lead runner in five straight innings, the Padres finally broke through by getting a man on with one out

Merrill, who entered the game having hit nine home runs in the previous 16 games, came up with one down in the seventh inning and sent a double to nearly the same spot as his home run on Saturday. This flyball, however, hit about halfway up the 37-foot high Green Monster that runs from the left field foul pole to center field, and Merrill had a stand-up double.

He scored on Ha-Seong Kim’s two-out double down the line before the inning ended on groundouts by Higashioka (who had three homers in the previous two games and eight in 51 June at-bats) and pinch-hitter David Peralta.

The Padres were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position after going 9 for 16 in that circumstance and hitting six home runs the previous two games.

“ It was a good series,” Shildt said. “… Just couldn’t couldn’t push enough across today.”

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