SAN DIEGO _ The San Diego Padres are officially, statistically just ordinary.
If not for the fact they had been so much more for a couple weeks, playing so extraordinarily in San Diego and St. Louis and San Francisco and Phoenix, mediocre might be an achievement, considering all that this franchise hasn't been for so long.
Now, OK feels like awful.
Especially this way, the Padres backing into a .500 record with their sixth straight loss, 4-2 to the Cincinnati Reds, on Saturday night.
They fell behind in the first inning again, and again they never led.
It has been almost a week since the Padres held a lead, having been up 1-0 on the Arizona Diamondbacks after 2 plus innings Sunday. That was 53 innings ago, back when their record was 11-5.
If only someone besides Eric Hosmer could hit. (Which is actually something no one has said in a while.)
The Padres first baseman homered and hit two singles, but the Padres had just four other hits in the game and just two of those before Jesse Winker's home run off Matt Wisler made it 4-1 in the seventh inning.
Fernando Tatis Jr. extended his hitting streak to nine games with a triple to lead off the eighth inning. But just as the Petco Park crowd's waning interest was stoked, the Padres did what they have so often lately.
Francisco Mejia struck out, Manny Machado walked and Hunter Renfroe popped out. Hosmer smacked the first pitch he saw from left-hander Amir Garrett up the middle to drive in Tatis before Wil Myers grounded into a force of Machado at third.
For the third game in a row, the Reds took a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Eric Lauer allowed his first run in either of the first two innings of a game this season when Jose Peraza led off with a broken-bat single to center field. The blooper that dropped in front of Myers ended a career-long 0-for-24 streak for Peraza.
Lauer (2-3) got two quick outs, but Peraza went to second base on the second of those, a slow groundout by Yasiel Puig. During a walk of Matt Kemp, Peraza stole third, and he scored on Jose Iglesias' single.
Lauer would make it through five innings, not getting shelled but also not as precise as he had been in any of his first four starts.
The Reds scored a run on three successive one-out singles in the fourth and another in the fifth after a lead-off walk by Eugenio Suarez, who went to third base on Lauer's wide pick-off attempt and scored on Puig's sacrifice fly.
The Padres tied the game in the second inning on Hosmer's homer.
The slumping first baseman was waiting for the first pitch he saw leading off the second inning. Or not waiting.
He jumped on a 95 mph fastball Luis Castillo threw to the tip top of the zone and sent it an estimated 392 feet to the seats beyond right-center field. The ball left Hosmer's bat at 103.3 mph, and there was never a doubt he would have not just his second hit in six games but his second homer of the season.
Hosmer, who also singled in the fourth inning, had been something of a poster child for the Padres' lack of offensive results.
His swings have consistently been far better than for any extended period the second half of 2018. His line drive rate of 24.6% entering Saturday's was five points higher than last season. His groundball rate of 47.4% was down 13 points from last season's 60.4%, which was second-highest in the majors. His average launch angle of 6.4 degrees is exponentially better than last year's minus-1.2 degrees, which was worst among all hitter with more than 111 batted ball events.
Yet he entered Saturday with a .184/.253/.263 line. His .516 OPS (on-base-plus-slugging) ranked 28th out of 29 qualifying first basemen.
Homser and everyone in the clubhouse repeatedly professed faith his numbers would match his process soon.
Perhaps Saturday was a sign it will.
Unfortunately, few joined him right away.
