San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers

Moments after the Padres had snapped their eight-game losing streak on Sunday evening, Manny Machado stood at his locker and took a moment to reflect on it. “It’s baseball, man,” Machado said. “... It’s a beautiful game. And we’re all stupid to be playing it.” Such are the ups and downs of a baseball season -- this season in particular for these San Diego Padres. Here are some takeaways from Dodger Stadium, where the Padres finally got into the win column with a 5-2 victory: **The Padres needed this ... badly** It’s been tense around here lately. Couldn’t you tell? Not even one full batter into Sunday’s game, Padres manager Craig Stammen and infield coach Ryan Goins were tossed for arguing a check-swing call. (Well, Goins was tossed for arguing. Then, when Stammen subsequently came out to argue *that*, he got run as well.) This was the Padres’ longest losing streak in 13 years. They’d lost all manner of games -- from blowouts to blown leads. They’d lost the first three games of the series against their archrivals. It needed to end on Sunday night. It did end.