LOS ANGELES — The Padres built another lead Wednesday night.

But that was it for a while, which has been their biggest problem of late.

It would be a problem even after they came back to tie the game with two runs in the ninth inning, as another recurring problem bit them in the end.

A reliever got beat.

Will Smith’s pinch-hit home run against Robert Suarez in the bottom of the ninth gave the Dodgers a 4-3 walk-off victory, their third in three games here this week end fifth in six games between the teams this season.

About all there was to celebrate after the bullpen lost a lead for the 10th time in the past 24 games it was given one to work with, was starting pitcher Stephen Kolek working into the seventh inning.

“Really important,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.

If the Padres (39-34) are to maintain their playoff position, that has to happen more often.

Shildt had relievers getting ready in the fifth inning before Kolek ended the three-run Dodgers frame with a double play grounder.

Kolek then retired the Dodgers in order in the sixth and went back out for the seventh.

With an assist from Wandy Peralta, Kolek turned in just the fourth quality start by a Padres pitcher in the past 21 games. Peralta took over with one out and two runners on and eventually finished the seventh inning by striking out Ohtani with the bases loaded.

David Morgan got in and out of trouble for a scoreless eight inning to make the ninth-inning comeback possible.

The effort by Kolek, who threw 97 pitches, was much needed.

Starting pitchers not going deeper in games is right up there on the list of problems for a listing team that lost for the sixth time in seven games and 10th time in its past 14 games.

But that is not entirely on the starting pitchers.

The Padres have held a lead in 17 consecutive games.

But in 10 of those games, they have scored no more than one run through the first five innings. And their record in the 17 games is 7-10.

They scored once Wednesday against Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan in his first game since before his September 2023 Tommy John surgery.

That run came in the second inning when Jake Cronenworth led off with a double lined to right field and scored when Elias Díaz’s hard grounder kicked up and off second baseman Tommy Edman and bounced into right field.

Sheehan retired the next seven batters he faced to get through four innings on 65 pitches. He struck out the final four batters he faced.

Justin Wrobleski followed with a 1-2-3 fifth and would run the Padres’ streak of hitless at-bats to 18 before Bryce Johnson’s two-out double in the eighth inning.

Wrobleski finished the game, left in to work through a ninth inning in which the Padres scored with help from an error.

Luis Arraez began the inning with a single before Manny Machado hit a grounder to third baseman Max Muncy that almost certainly would have resulted in a double play of Muncy’s low and wide throw to second base had not gotten past Edman.

A single by Gavin Sheets loaded the bases before Cronenworth drove in Arraez with a sacrifice fly.

Xander Bogaerts then tied the game with a double that brought Machado home but could not get Brandon Lockridge, pinch-running for Sheets, around from third, as he was held by third base coach Tim Leiper.

“It’s not a big park and (center fielder Andy) Pages has a good arm, and it looked like he got over there pretty good,” Shildt said. “We’ve got one out. We’ve got a fast guy at third … for contact or anything in the air with a contact guy with (Jose) Iglesias. As far as the decision, I had no problem with it.”

The problem was that Iglesias followed with a hard grounder right at first baseman Freddie Freeman, who threw home to easily get Lockridge trying to score before Díaz hit a grounder to third that Muncy this time successfully threw to Edman for the force out.

“Good at-bats in the ninth,” Shildt said. “The Iglesias ball (was) a missile right to Freddie. He made a nice play.”

The ongoing offensive ineffectiveness is why Shildt has so often managed like he is on a ledge.

As the Dodgers came back and went ahead in the fifth — on Muncy’s triple, Andy Pages’ sacrifice fly, Hyeseong Kim’s double, Dalton Rushing’s two-RBI single — Yuki Matsui was throwing and was likely no more than two batters from coming in before Shohei Ohtani grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The recurring slim margins in the score consistently leave Shildt feeling he has little option but to turn to the bullpen to try to close out or to chase victory.

He is trying to preserve a rotation depleted by injury and somewhat limited by youth.

Kolek was making his ninth major league start. Ryan Bergert will make his fourth major league start in Thursday’s series finale. Randy Vásquez, who started Tuesday, is in his second season as a full-time starter.

With Yu Darvish yet to pitch this season due to an elbow issue and Michael King sidelined since mid-May, that has left the Padres with just two veteran starters, in Nick Pivetta and Dylan Cease.

Darvish appears on track to return in mid-July. And part of the long buildup has been because he wants to get to a place where he is capable of consistently going five or six innings when he returns.

That seems practically essential.

Because the Padres might have to navigate the rest of the season without King.

The news regarding King, who has not pitched since mid-May due to a nerve impingement in the right shoulder area, continues to be encouraging but not all that promising.

Every image and every specialist has indicated there is no structural damage, which means no surgery.

There are signs that the impingement has improved. The wait now, according to those familiar with the situation, is for the nerve to start “firing.”

There remains no timeline. And that is troublesome in that it means the Padres don’t know when — or if — they will get one of their top starting pitchers back.

King still expects to pitch. He could be back by the end of July. He might not be back at all. No one close to the situation has guaranteed he will return this season.

That greatly alters the complexion of the rotation.

Bergert has gone as far as to record an out in the sixth inning once. He finished five innings in his other two starts.

Kolek threw a complete-game shutout in his second big-league start, on May 10 at Colorado, and went six innings two starts later. But he had not made it through six innings in any of his four starts since then. That has been largely his doing, as he piled up pitches.

But Shildt has pulled Vásquez early in three straight games despite a low pitch count — in large part because of who is due up and also because Vásquez does see quite an uptick in production against him the third time through the order.

But some in the organization believe there is a larger discussion that has to happen here at some point. Probably soon.

Shildt has said recently that starters need to go deeper in games more consistently. That was in the context of the bullpen having had to cover so many innings.

Wednesday was just the eighth time in the past 21 games a Padres pitcher even made it to the sixth inning.