Heartbreaker at Petco: Mets lose on late home run to .126 hitter

Padres 3 Mets 2 (Petco Park, San Diego, CA)

Mets record: 28-36

Mets streak: Lost 1

WP - Bradgley Rodriguez (1-2)

LP - Austin Warren (1-2)

SV - Mason Miller (18)

Seat on the Korner: Freddy Fermin

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

Freddy Fermin ... a .126 hitter with a .392 OPS coming into the game, hit his first home run of the season in the 7th inning off of Austin Warren to spoil a good start from Nolan McLean and give the Padres a 3-2 victory over the Mets at Petco.

Need to Know

• The Mets are 7-14 in their last 21 against the Padres in Petco Park.

• In his first start against the Mets after pitching with them last season, Griffin Canning went five innings giving up one run on three hits and two walks while striking out six.

• Nolan McLean threw a career high 101 pitches and gave up a run on three hits and three walks while striking out five.

• The Mets now have the toughest remaining schedule with a opponents winning percentage of .537 but tonight was also the last game of the season where they will have a later start time than 8:00 ET.

• Marcus Semien's homer in the 7th was his 5th in his last 11 games, and 7th of the year.

• The Padres broke a six-game losing streak with their victory.

Turning Point

Right before Fermin's home run, Sung-Mun Song hit a dribbler to first base where the easy play would have been for Jared Young to field it and toss to Warren or stop to the bag himself. But Austin Warren tried to get on SportsCenter with a hero ball play that ended up in sheer drunkenness and a scraped pitching hand.

That led to ...

On the very next pitch. Of course.

Three Keys

The Song Remains The Same

Very happy that Griffin Canning is back and that he's healthy.

Now that we got that out of the way, Canning had an 0-4 record with a 7.71 ERA coming into the game. Also, Canning played here last season. There should have been at least a little familiarity.

Wrong. Canning looked like Don Drysdale, because of course.

How many more times?

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, what is blogging about the same thing over and over again while never expecting different results? Because that's me. That's now. That's my reality. No matter how hard I try, I find my way into the same old jam.

Good Times ...

The good news is that Nolan McLean looked like he got some mojo back. He wasn't dominant ... still a little wild with his sweeper. But it was good enough to get him out of trouble and he got good results with the sweeper, and all of his pitches.

... Bad Times

After the Fermin home run, which wasted a great play by Luis Torrens to dismantle a double steal (a play which never works and never should work), the Mets had a couple of chances to get the lead back. Juan Soto was up in the 8th with two runners on. He hit the ball hard.

Then in the 9th, the Mets faced Mason Miller. Last night, they faced Miller coming off a weeklong layoff and they got to him in a meaningless situation. Tonight, however, they got a less rusty Mason. And a less rusty Mason is a dominant Mason.

Also, Mark Vientos is currently swinging the bat as if he'll never get another major league hit, ever again. It makes me wonder.