They were wrong, dead-loss wrong.
Kim blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth off Reds relief pitcher Heath Hembree, breaking a tie and lifting the Padres to a 7-5 victory in raucous Petco Park.
Kim came to the plate with a .195 average against fastballs and Hembree produced two strikes.
But then he hung a slider and Kim hit it so hard it chipped a brick behind the left field wall, the eighth home run hit off Hembree this year.
Hembree struck out the first two Padres in the eighth and had two strikes on Tommy Pham. But Pham also picked on a dangling slider and Pham rammed it off the center field wall for his third double of the game.
Then came Kim and there went the game.
“For me it was frustrating because I feel I’m throwing the ball really well,” said Hembree. “I made a couple of mistakes, those two 2-and-2 sliders.
“Honestly, before I threw that pitch to Kim I was excited about it,” he added. “I was excited that I was going to shut up the whole stadium and sit everybody back down. But it didn’t go my way. I gave him a pitch to hit and he had a cool moment for himself.”
There have been three straight cool moments for the slugging San Diegans, three straight wins over the Reds. In the three games they have hit nine home runs and 20 extra base hits.
The Padres were not alone in losing a key player, and the Reds lost one much earlier — four batters into the game and it wasn’t due to injury.
Joey Votto threw a temper tantrum and was ejected, along with manager David Bell, who rushed to the scene but was too late to save Votto’s departure.
Votto was called out on a checked swing strike after home plate umpire Ryan Additon checked with third base umpire Chris Guccione.
When Guccione lifted his arm in the strike three gesture, Votto took a few steps toward third base, yelling at Guccione. Home plate umpire Additon said something to Votto and Votto erupted. It took Bell and several teammates to restrain Votto several times as he tried to charge Additon.
“I saw Joey start to walk toward third base because he was upset with the umpire,” said Bell. “Looked like the home plate umpire may have said something to Joey and Joey turned around.”
After the stir subsided, Bell returned to the dugout to revise his lineup card and put Mike Freeman at first base.
“The umpires called me back on the field and told me they decided to eject me, too,” said Bell.
The Reds gave starter Vladimir Gutierrez a 2-0 lead by scoring runs in the first and second innings.
The Padres tied it, 2-2, in the third when Tatis beat an infield single and Jake Cronenworth homered to right field.
Gutierrez retired the first two in the fourth, then gave up a double to Pham and two walks to fill the bases. Manny Machado picked on the first pitch and cleared the bases with a three-run double to left and it was San Diego on top, 5-2.
The Reds tied it in the fifth with three runs, a run-scoring single to left by Tyler Naquin and a two-run, two-out, two-strike single by Eugenio Suarez.
The Padres did not have a rotation starter and used the game as a Bullpen Day.
Miguel Diaz started and gave up two runs and three hits over two innings. Daniel Camarena made his major league debut by giving up three runs and four hits over 2 2/3 innings.
And that was it for the Reds. James Norwood, Nabil Crismatt and Mark Melancon stopped the Reds on no runs and three hits over the final 4 1/3 innings.
Jonathan India, who had three hits and scored two runs, poked a one-out single in the ninth off Melancon, giving the Reds an opportunity tie it with one swing of Jesse Winker’s bat. Instead, one swing produced two outs, a game-ending double play.
SUNDAY’S GAME
Reds at Padres, 4:10 p.m., Bally Sports Ohio, 700, 1410
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