Fernando Tatis Jr. just put together maybe the best individual performance I’ve ever seen from a single player. First pitch of the game, he goes deep. Then he robs Francisco Lindor of a grand slam, climbing the wall in right field to take it away. Then he hits another homer on top of that. That’s the Fernando Tatis Jr. game, and I don’t think I forget that one for a long, long time.

Problem is, none of it saved the series. The Padres lost two of three to the Mets, capped off by a 4-2 loss to Robert Stock, a guy with a 6.57 ERA making just his fourth start of the year. Twelve strikeouts. Two-for-twelve with runners in scoring position. Five walks drawn and only two runs to show for it. You cannot let a guy like Robert Stock beat you. I said I’d get over it. I’m not getting over it.

I’m not saying the whole season comes down to one series against the Mets. But the Diamondbacks won that day, the Phillies won that day, and you can’t afford clunkers like this one right now. Every game counts more than it did a month ago. This team has the vets to handle a race like this, they just didn’t do it this week. I want to see the offense stop doing the one-good-day, one-bad-day thing, because there isn’t much runway left to fix it.