Padres shut out by Mets for sixth straight loss, 10th in 11 games

The Padres came home from their worst road trip in two years, out of playoff position for the first time since the season's second week.

They had lost five games in a row and nine of their previous 10.

Waiting for them in San Diego were the Mets, in last place in the National League East and the only team performing anywhere near as poorly as the Padres at the plate.

In some ways, very nearly. But on Friday night, not nearly enough.

The Mets scored in four different innings and beat the Padres 5-0 at Petco Park.

It was not what they envisioned getting back to their sold-out home park after a 1-5 trip to Washington and Philadelphia that ended Thursday.

“Anytime you lose, it’s disappointing,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “And especially when you don’t score any runs, don’t get any momentum going. Very disappointing.”

The final run was scored off closer Mason Miller, who was pitching only because he had not done so in a week and had worked just twice during the 11-game stretch in which the Padres have held a lead in just eight of 99 innings and are now 1-10.

They had not lost 10 times in any 11-game span since 2021. This is their first six-game losing streak of the season.

After getting three hits Friday, all singles and none in the same inning, they are batting .195 over the past 11 games. That is their lowest average over a stretch that long since 2023.

The ‘23 club never got more than three games above .500, at 18-15 on May 5 of that year. This year's team was 31-20 on May 23. It is now 32-30.

The Padres entered Friday ranked last in the major leagues in batting average (.216), on-base percentage (.291) and OPS (.651) and second-to-last in slugging (.360).

The Mets were just one spot better in average (.228), OBP (.293) and OPS (.652). They were last in slugging (.359).

But they showed slug aplenty on Friday.

A leadoff home run by Jared Young in the second inning put them up 1-0. Luis Torrens' one-out double and Bo Bichette's two-out triple in the third made it 2-0. And Torrens, who played 61 games at catcher for the Padres from 2017 to ’20, followed Baty's leadoff single in the fifth inning with a one-out home run over the wall in center field to double that lead.

All that damage was done against Michael King, who went into his start Sunday in Washington with a 2.76 ERA and left after six innings Friday with a 3.41 ERA.

In his three starts since holding the Dodgers scoreless for seven innings on May 18, King has allowed 14 runs in 14⅔ innings.

“Really bad,” King said of his night.

The Padres have not scored more than three runs against a starting pitcher since May 22, a span of 12 games.

Mets rookie Christian Scott came within one out of becoming the 30th pitcher to throw a quality start against the Padres before Manny Machado's two-out single in the sixth inning.

With runners at the corners, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza brought in Huascar Brazobán to face Ty France, who struck out.

One category the Padres and Mets were not neck-and-neck in a race to be MLB's most futile offense was in runs scored.

The Padres went into Friday averaging a major league-low 3.85 runs per game. The Mets were not much better, but their 4.05 runs per game ranked 23rd among the 30 teams.

That owed greatly to their having entered Friday ranked eighth in the major leagues with a .260 batting average with runners in scoring position.

The Padres were batting .252 (tied for 15th) in that circumstance, but they were 6-for-53 (.113) over their previous 10 games.

Friday was their 62nd game, meaning there are 100 remaining. They continue to contend there is a lot of time to turn things around.

"You know, we obviously don’t want to be going through this thing that we’ve been going through," Machado said Friday afternoon. "But we all know that it’s a long season, and we’re gonna be better than what we’ve been playing."

It appeared a little they would wait at least another day to be better.

“One of these days we’re going to put up eight runs, and we’ll be out of it,” Jackson Merrill said after the game. “That’s what happens in these slumps. You get to a game one day and you en up raking and that kind of jump starts you from there. … We’re a little frustrated in here, losing six straight. But we’ll come back and fight another day tomorrow.”

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 10:10 PM.