San Diego Padres morning after: Curse of the Dodgers needs to be broken ASAP

Someone please grab the garlic, crucifix and start rehearsing all of the mystical chants you can find. There's a spell to be broken and a monster to be slayed this weekend at Petco Park.

Sure, blame it on the horrific song from last postseason or the crying Kershaw meme, but the San Diego Padres have to find whatever it is that has sent this season into a limbo of below-.500 baseball that simply can't seem to be shattered. And they also need to find the elixir that eliminates the curse of the Dodgers, something that has L.A. winning streak against their Interstate 5 rival to the south standing at six games after Friday night's comeback road victory.

San Diego Padres need to snap the curse of the Los Angeles Dodgers

It certainly felt like San Diego was on its way to putting the losing streak to L.A. to bed on Friday night, with Robert Suarez needing just one more strike to get out of the eighth inning with a 3-2 San Diego lead. Instead, David Peralta took a 1-2 pitch to left field for a run-scoring and game-tying double. From there, five more L.A. batters would take their swings before the inning was over and the Dodgers had established a 7-3 edge with a five-run eighth.

Suarez and Scott Barlow would each be tagged with multiple runs before the Dodgers finalized a 10-5 win. After seven innings of solid pitching from Yu Darvish, the San Diego bullpen simply couldn't keep the Dodgers down over the final two frames.

Moments like those happen when another team has an edge on you, and it certainly seems that Los Angeles is that team right now.

The good news? There are still three games left in the series in San Diego. There is still time to not only break the Dodgers curse but also gain some ground in the NL Wild Card chase (something San Diego could have done on Saturday had they held on for a win).

Friday night certainly didn't end the Padres season, but it also served as a reminder that, even with the additions at the MLB trade deadline, it's going to take things to start going right against the Dodgers (and every other team) for San Diego to get above .500 and have a realistic chance to get back to the postseason.

Bring your garlic on Saturday night, Padres fans. Your team needs it.