Padres don't have another comeback in them, fall to Mets
The Padres mounted one comeback this weekend.
A second apparently was far too much to ask of the majors' surprisingly weakest offense.
Freddy Fermin homered in a second straight game, but Randy Vásquez couldn't get out of the fifth inning and the Padres' expected run-producers continued their season-long swoon in a 7-3 loss to the New York Mets in front of a sell-out crowd of 41,159 at Petco Park on Sunday.
"We just know that we’re better than what we’re doing," Fernando Tatis Jr. said after the Padres lost for the 11th time in 13 games. "We’re working for it. We’re trying to find a way out of it."
The wins have been elusive for two weeks. The offense has been a problem for just about the entirety of the season as it ranks last in runs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS, and didn't have another answer on Sunday after Fermin's late go-ahead blast on Saturday.
Fermin's second home run in as many days after going deep for the first time in 121 plate appearances briefly shaved the Padres' deficit to 4-2 in the fifth inning. But left-hander Yuki Matsui gave the runs back on a pair of blasts in the sixth from MJ Melendez and rookie Carson Benge, who collected the first five-hit day of his career.
Meantime, the Padres' two through four hitters combined to go 1-for-11, with Jackson Merrill accounting for that trio's only baserunning via a walk and an infield single. New three-hole hitter Ty France had the best chance to answer a first-inning run, but he grounded into a double play after Tatis and Merrill worked walks off opener Huascar Brazoban to start the game.
The Padres went on to go 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position while the team's stars continued to come up short even against soft-tossing lefty Sean Manaea, led by clean-up hitter Manny Machado going 0-for-4 to drop his batting average to .169, lowest among all MLB qualifiers.
He's not alone.
Merrill's .604 OPS is only a tick above Machado's (.596), shortstop Xander Bogaerts (.648 OPS) was hitless in his previous five games before going 1-for-4 on Sunday and Tatis (.670 OPS) still has only one homer. Adding injury to insult, Miguel Andujar (.706 OPS) exited in the seventh inning with a tweaked hamstring a batter after beating out an infield single, one of seven Padres hits in the game.
"Well, we haven’t found them yet; that’s where the search is," Padres manager Craig Stammen said of the two-month head-scratcher about the team's offense. "And we're going to keep looking for it. The good thing is we have very talented players that we’re working with, and they can make adjustments. They’re elite at adjustments. We’re just in search of that answer. …
"I think the answer is, we’ve got great players and they’re just going to be just fine."
Yet signs of pressing persist as the Padres steer solutions toward aggressiveness on the basepaths.
Sung-Mun Song was caught in a rundown in Saturday's win 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 France up as the tying run and Tatis already in scoring position - three batters after Fermin's home run of Manaea.
"Just plans - from myself and the team," Tatis said of the decision to attempt to steal third base. "Couldn’t execute it, but obviously we’ve been more aggressive on the bases this year."
Tatis swiped his team-best 15th base after leading off the game with a walk, but he's already been caught stealing seven times - tied for his career high - one week into June.
"Yeah, he has been caught seven times, and we’re continually coaching him on the right time to go and the wrong times to go, and sometimes it’s a 50/50 shot," Stammen said. "But I like him taking the chance of being aggressive and trying to make something happen."
Asked if the situation on Sunday in a two-run ballgame was the right time for Tatis to attempt a steal when he was already in scoring position, Stammen said: "When Tati goes, I think it’s always the right time to go. I’ll have his back no matter what, and I believe in that kid. That kid, when he’s going like that, we go, and he’s trying to create some offense for us. I think it’s a great thing."
Vásquez was hit hard from the start but minimized the damage through four innings. He gave up a single and a double to start the game and only allowed Juan Soto an RBI groundout in the first inning and a Marcus Semien's solo homer to start the second.
He stranded two runners in the third inning and a double in the fourth before the first four Mets reached to start the fifth. Jared Young's bases-loaded single ultimately chased Vásquez from the game and A.J. Ewing's sacrifice fly off Matsui staked New York to a 4-0 lead.
Matsui serving up solo homers to Melendez and Benge in the sixth quickly erased Fermin's two-run blast.
Vásquez struck out three and allowed four runs, walked two and tied a season-high with eight hits allowed as his ERA rose to 6.16 over his last four starts, all losses for the Padres.
He had a 2.68 ERA while the Padres won eight of his first nine starts.
Sitting at his locker after the game, Vásquez declined to speak with reporters through the team's PR staff.
The starting staff as a whole has a 4.59 ERA over its last 13 games.
"Some days you’re going to have it and some days you’re not," 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.
"Last night, a little bit went our way. Today, not so much. We’ll get back at it tomorrow and see if we can figure things out."
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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 4:19 PM.