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.<\/p>\n
Sunday was more of the same.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
“We just know that we\u2019re better than what we\u2019re doing,” Fernando Tatis Jr.<\/a> said postgame. “We\u2019re working for it. We\u2019re trying to find a way out of it,” he added.<\/p>\n Despite two early runs surrendered by San Diego starter Randy V\u00e1squez, a two-run deficit seems insurmountable for this offense to overcome at the moment.<\/p>\n After V\u00e1squez’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.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n V\u00e1squez was hit hard from the first inning on, allowing eight hits and four earned runs Sunday.<\/p>\n “Some days you\u2019re going to have it and some days you\u2019re not,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “If anybody knows that, it\u2019s me. I know that some days you\u2019re nails, you can\u2019t do anything wrong, and then there\u2019s other days where you can\u2019t do anything right. And unfortunately, we\u2019re kind of having a lot of guys right now that feel like nothing\u2019s going our way right now.”<\/p>\n San Diego’s lineup went on to go 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in their effort to back up V\u00e1squez’s rough outing. Manny Machado<\/a>‘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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Utility-man Sung-Mun Song was caught in a rundown in Saturday\u2019s victory after an aggressive move toward the plate on Mets catcher Luis Torrens<\/a> hard-selling a throw to second base.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Tatis was thrown out trying to steal third to end the fifth inning \u2014 with Ty France<\/a> up as the tying run and Tatis already in scoring position \u2014 three batters after catcher Freddy Fermin<\/a> hit a two-run homer to cut the Mets’ 4-0 lead in half at the time.<\/p>\n