The Mets opened a three-game series against the Padres in San Diego on Thursday, carrying the momentum of a 7-1 win in Seattle into the final stop of their 2026 West Coast trip. New York entered at 27-35, while San Diego came in at 32-29, and the matchup arrived with the Mets still trying to steady a season that has gone uneven almost everywhere away from home.
For readers searching mets vs padres now, the draw is the setting as much as the standings. This is the first meeting between the clubs in 2026, and it comes with a familiar warning label for New York: since 2015, the Mets have lost 20 of 34 games at Petco Park, even though they have split their 34 games against San Diego overall. The Padres also handled the season series well last year, taking four of six from the Mets and sweeping all three games at Petco Park.
That history gives the series immediate weight, because the Mets have already spent this trip digging out of a hole in Seattle. They lost 3-2 in ten innings on Monday, fell 8-3 on Tuesday, and finally snapped a five-game losing streak at T-Mobile Park with Wednesday’s 7-1 win. The offense had been stuck in a small but costly rut before that finale; the Mets scored all five of their runs in the first two games via home runs, then found more balance when seven of their nine starters reached safely with at least one hit in the win.
Bo Bichette was the center of it. He broke an 0-for-16 stretch with his first four-hit game as a member of the team, scored once and drove in three runs. AJ Ewing added three hits, Jared Young and Luis Torrens each had two, Marcus Semien homered in the opener, Young followed with a solo shot of his own, and Carson Benge hit two home runs on Tuesday. Semien has been one of the few bats giving the lineup shape in the right spots, hitting.340/.379/.420 with a 127 wRC+ with runners in scoring position over 50 at-bats, but just.181/.235/.268 with a 45 wRC+ when nobody is on base. Bichette’s hot hand helps, yet he has also been one of the bigger drag points in the order, which is why his place in the two-hole is now part of the conversation as the Mets move through the series.
The next answer comes quickly. This is the final West Coast stop of the Mets’ 2026 schedule unless they make a postseason run, and the three games in San Diego will say whether Wednesday’s turnaround in Seattle was a reset or just a brief detour before the same problems return.
