SAN DIEGO — Over the past nine games, there’s been no in between for the Minnesota Twins. They’ve played poorly against a red-hot Philadelphia Phillies club. They played great against a first-place Atlanta Braves squad. Then a superior San Diego Padres team handed them their lunch.The Padres took advantage of one too many free bases Sunday afternoon, quickly turning a tight game into a blowout. Three straight one-out walks in the sixth inning followed by consecutive run-scoring hits allowed San Diego to end a tie and complete a sweep of the Twins with an 8-1 victory in front of 40,103 at Petco Park.The loss dropped the Twins to 63-68 overall, two games out of the final spot in the American League wild-card race. The team also is 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the Central division.“They came in and they beat us,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “They beat us in all facets of the game. … They did put the ball in some good spots, but that happens sometimes. We did that in the Braves series, and that’s baseball. We’ve got to rebound after that because they beat us in all facets.”The Twins stuck around in all three games but didn’t have an answer for a Padres club that’s won 23 of 35 games since the All-Star break. After blowing a four-run lead in Saturday’s loss, the Twins played San Diego even into the sixth inning.Short of yielding one of two home runs hit by Fernando Tatis Jr., Bailey Ober was effective, limiting San Diego to a run in five innings.But the Twins bullpen didn’t have the same success.Pitching in a tie game in the bottom of the sixth inning, Kody Funderburk walked two batters, and Jeff Hoffman issued another to load the bases. Luis Rengifo’s opposite-way, bases-loaded bounder down the first-base line scored two runs and broke the tie, and Tatis followed with a two-run single to make it a 5-1 game.The Padres scored three more times over the next two innings to turn this into a rout. After the loss, the Twins are only 16-29 against National League teams this season compared with 47-39 against the AL.Fortunately for the Twins, of the team’s 31 games left, only three are against NL opponents.“Giving free bases is just unacceptable, no matter who you’re playing,” Hoffman said. “(The Padres are) world-class, and they’re gonna make you pay for it. We gotta do a better job of getting ahead and staying ahead, and just pounding the zone because we got the guys with the arsenals to do that. If we do our part, throw strikes, then we’ll be in a pretty good spot.”Here are more Twins news and notes after a sobering weekend in San Diego.Byron Buxton has been struggling since his return from the 10-day injured list Aug. 13. (Mike Nowak / Getty Images)• Byron Buxton is still searching for the groove he was in before the All-Star break. Buxton singled in three at-bats in Sunday’s loss, but he also grounded into a double play in the first inning. With the Twins being blown out, Shelton pinch hit for Buxton in the ninth inning.Since the All-Star break, Buxton is hitting .143/.250/.161 in 64 plate appearances. He hasn’t homered since June 22, a span of 96 straight plate appearances.