The Padres are a vastly different team than they were in mid-June, when the Mets swept three mostly non-competitive games from them in New York.
There really is no comparison.
They have since shortly after that series mostly been the kind of team that wins consistently, regardless of opponent.
“Ultimately, we compete against ourselves,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said Thursday afternoon. “But we’re looking forward to the series.”
Yet, when the teams’ second series of the season began Thursday night, it did so with the same result as those games in New York.
And the Padres did not look like a team that was 17 games better in the standings than when it left Citi Field on Father’s Day.
The Mets went up right away, and the Padres capitalized on virtually none of their minimal chances in an 8-3 loss at Petco Park.
The loss was the Padres’ second straight, the first time since losing July 14 and 19 that they have dropped consecutive games. That was the last game before the All-Star break and the first game coming out of it.
“We’ve lost a couple in a row,” Shildt said. “It’s gonna happen. But I ride with this club. This club’s ready to get after it tomorrow already.”
Even with Thursday’s defeat, the Padres are 22-7 since their last two-game losing streak, a half-game better than any other team in the major leagues. The closest to them in that span are the Diamondbacks, at 22-8.
Arizona holds an advantage where it will matter most 32 games from now.
With the day off Thursday, the Diamondbacks gained a half-game on the Padres to take over sole possession of the National League’s top wild-card spot.
With the victory, the Mets remained 1½ games behind the Braves, who are in the third-and-final wild-card position.
The game did not get ugly until the end, as the Mets scored five runs in the ninth off Logan Gillaspie in the ninth. That made runs by the Padres in the bottom of the ninth moot.
The Mets did start quickly.
The first two of their 17 hits were doubles by the game’s first two batters.
Francisco Lindor, who led off the game Cease started in New York on June 16 with a home run, began Thursday night’s game with a double lined down the right field line and scored when Mark Vientos lined the next pitch down the left-field line.
Cease got a break when Brandon Nimmo followed with a hard line drive to second baseman Xander Bogaerts, who quickly threw the ball to shortstop Mason McCoy to double up Vientos. After a single by Pete Alonso, a groundout by Jesse Winker ended the inning.
Cease did not get such good fortune in the fourth inning, as the Mets added two runs, one of them unearned.
Winker hit a one-out single and Jose Iglesias followed with a ground-rule double. With Francisco Alvarez up, a fastball from Cease that was not all that far outside caromed off catcher Luis Campusano’s glove and to the backstop, allowing Winker to get home. Alvarez lined out before Jeff McNeil sent a slow roller up the middle and beat out a throw from McCoy to bring in Iglesias and make it 3-0.
Cease would pitch into the seventh without allowing another run, which was exceedingly different than his first start against the Mets. That was his worst outing of 2024, with the 3⅔ innings tied for his fewest of the season and the seven runs the most he has allowed.
But the Padres lone run came in the fifth inning after they loaded the bases with no outs against Mets starter Luis Severino.
After a walk by McCoy, a single by Luis Arraez and walk by Jurickson Profar, Jake Cronenworth grounded into a double play. That scored Johnson and moved Arraez to third. After Manny Machado walked, Bogaerts grounded out.
The groundball by Cronenworth was the hardest ball he had ever put in play, at 110.9 mph. Iglesias, the Mets’ second baseman fielded the ball on one hop from his knees, spun and made the throw to second to start the double play.
“The guy made a great play,” Cronenworth said.
The long fifth inning drove Severino, who five days earlier had shut out the Marlins on four hits, from the game.
Bryan Hoeing relieved Cease with one out and a runner on second in the seventh and worked 2⅔ scoreless innings to keep the deficit at two.
But the Padres, who also failed to score in the first after having runners at first and second with one out in the third inning, were hitless in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
Down 8-1 after the Mets got seven hits against Gillaspie in the ninth, the Padres worked two walks and got RBI singles from McCoy and Profar to score the game’s final two runs in the ninth.
“You’re gonna get championship effort out of this group every night,” Shildt said. “It’s a truly wonderful trait, special trait. Can’t win them all, but in a pretty damn good position when you do that every night.”
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