Petco Park, San Diego-

The three-game homestand with the Mets did not start well for San Diego.

Manager Craig Stammen reported to the media before the game that Ramon Laureano will undergo hip surgery and will likely miss the remainder of the season. The team also placed Jeremiah Estrada on the IL with a sore knee. When it rains, it pours.

For San Diego, this news could not have come at a worse time for the franchise.

The Padres came into their matchup with the Mets having lost five straight games and nine of their last 10 contests. The Padres were leading the NL Wild Card standings by three games just over 10 days ago; now they are a half game out of making the playoffs and in jeopardy of falling under the .500 mark. It can happen that quickly.

On Friday, with Michael King on the mound, things looked positive for the Padres against the 27-35 Mets. It did not take long for the optimism to fade. “He kept his pitch count down all night… For him to go six innings saves the bullpen a little bit,” Stammen said after the game.

In true baseball fashion, the Mets got to King early and knocked him from the game after the right-hander coughed up four earned runs in six innings of work. Two home runs accounted for three of the runs as former Padres catcher Luis Torrens took King deep in the fifth inning. Jacob Young took King deep in the second to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

There is no clutch in the Padres’ bats.

They may assemble the beginnings of a rally, but it is quickly stomped out continuously by this offense and its sabotage-like approach to hitting. The Padres’ stars continue to be ice cold, though Fernando Tatis Jr. is starting to slowly get his average up (.271 on the season). Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado are both hitting around the Mendoza Line with OPS’s in the six hundreds. This is not a good thing. “Anytime you lose, it’s disappointing,” Stammen said to the media after the loss.

To make matters worse, the team is playing with absolutely no sense of urgency.

It is early June, but the play of this current roster is disappointing to witness, to say the least.

It is difficult to point fingers, though Machado, Merrill, and Tatis all need to improve. At the beginning of the season, other players stepped up. Not household names, but men like Gavin Sheets, Miguel Andujar, Ty France, and Luis Campusano all chipped in to provide clutch hits for the offense.

With these “other guys” returning to the norm, the stars need to produce.

The Padres were shut out by young right-handed pitcher Christian Scott. The 26-year-old went 5 1.3 innings, allowing only three hits in the game while striking out three men. Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver, and A.J. Minter held San Diego in three-plus innings of work.

The Mets added a run in the top of the 9th to take the game out of slam range, but the contest was over long ago for the punchless Padres. They went down in the 9th inning without putting up much of a fight at all. An error put Manny Machado on base with one out, but that was the only base runner the bullpen would allow for the Mets in the 5-0 win.

San Diego will play the Mets again on Saturday. 7:10 PDT start time

Griffin Canning (0-4, 7.16 ERA) vs. Nolan McLean (3-4, 4.21 ERA)

James Clark

James was born and raised in America’s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. James has written about the Padres and their prospects for over a decade. He also writes about San Diego State as well as other local sports. James is the Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that’s our motto. Enjoy.