SAN DIEGO — As losses continue to mount, so do the questions surrounding the Padres offense. Those concerns have only intensified as the club’s stars have continuously failed to deliver on a consistent basis this season.
Sunday was more of the same.
The Friars dropped Sunday’s series finale to the New York Mets by a final of 7-3, finding themselves half a game out of a National League playoff spot as a result.
“We just know that we’re better than what we’re doing,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said postgame. “We’re working for it. We’re trying to find a way out of it,” he added.
Despite two early runs surrendered by San Diego starter Randy Vásquez, a two-run deficit seems insurmountable for this offense to overcome at the moment.
After Vásquez’s impressive start to the campaign, the 27-year-old has now posted a 2-4 record while giving up 17 earned runs in his last 35 2/3 innings pitched.
Vásquez was hit hard from the first inning on, allowing eight hits and four earned runs Sunday.
“Some days you’re going to have it and some days you’re not,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “If anybody knows that, it’s me. I know that some days you’re nails, you can’t do anything wrong, and then there’s other days where you can’t do anything right. And unfortunately, we’re kind of having a lot of guys right now that feel like nothing’s going our way right now.”
San Diego’s lineup went on to go 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in their effort to back up Vásquez’s rough outing. Manny Machado’s 0-for-4 day at the dish also lowered his batting average to .179 on the year, the lowest mark among all MLB qualified hitters.
Base running blunders have also plagued the Brown and Gold as of late. Regardless of their aggressiveness on the base paths, they’re not being rewarded.
Utility-man Sung-Mun Song was caught in a rundown in Saturday’s victory after an aggressive move toward the plate on Mets catcher Luis Torrens hard-selling a throw to second base.
On Sunday, Tatis was thrown out trying to steal third to end the fifth inning — with Ty France up as the tying run and Tatis already in scoring position — three batters after catcher Freddy Fermin hit a two-run homer to cut the Mets’ 4-0 lead in half at the time.
As the Padres fall to 33-31, they need to find a solution and they need it quickly. Their next test comes in the form of the Cincinnati Reds at home starting Monday.
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