Padres wrap mediocre May with series loss to Nationals

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 31, 2026

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — The comebacks have fallen short. The hits and the runs have yet to get rolling.

The Padres keep saying it will happen, that the offense will come around.

Yet they played their final game of May on Sunday, and they remained stuck in neutral.

They scored two runs in six-plus innings against a starting pitcher who entered the game with a 5.23 ERA and did virtually nothing against a bullpen that has not been all that dependable.

A 4-2 loss to the Nationals was the Padres’ sixth defeat in seven games, and it made their predictions of an eventual offensive turnaround ever more dubious.

Padres starter Griffin Canning (0-4, 7.16) held the major leagues’ most productive offense scoreless for three innings before allowing a pair of home runs over the next two innings.

The first of the homers came on a 3-0 fastball in the heart of the strike zone that Luis Garcia Jr. ripped over the tall wall in right-center field.

The second home run went to about the same place off the bat of James Wood, and it came after No. 9 batter Keibert Ruiz had singled.

Down 3-0, the notion of the Padres pulling this one out seemed outdated.

The Padres, whose six victories in games in which they trailed by at least three runs are most in the major leagues, have not overcome a deficit that big in any of their past eight chances to do so.

They have, in fact, scored as many as three runs in just five of their past 12 games.

The offense did at least stir in the seventh.

After Yuki Matsui worked a scoreless sixth, the Padres got to within a run in the seventh. Even that was disappointing in the end.

Xander Bogaerts drew a walk to start the inning, and Jackson Merrill followed with a bunt single before Ty France lined a double on the first pitch of his at-bat and the final pitch of Nationals starter Zack Littell’s day.

Nick Castellanos’ sacrifice fly off reliever Orlando Ribalta scored Merrill and moved France to third.

After Sung-Mun Song drew a walk, Miguel Andujar pinch-hit for catcher Freddy Fermin.

The idea was that, although Andujar had four hits in his previous 35 at-bats, he was more likely to at least get the ball into the outfield than Fermin, who is batting .133 this season.

But Andujar struck out looking, and Song was thrown out trying to steal second on the same pitch, ending the inning.

The Padres turned to two of their high-leverage relievers at that point, and their deficit grew.

Jeremiah Estrada walked the first batter he faced and yielded a single to the second batter before the Padres got the first out at third base.

Left-hander Adrian Morejón was brought in to face the top of the Nationals’ lineup, and he got the second out on a fielder’s choice grounder by left-handed-hitting James Wood before pinch-hitter Andrés Chaparro grounded a single through the right side to make it 4-2.

Jackson Merrill’s one-out single in the ninth inning gave the Padres their lone baserunner in the final two innings, and he was caught trying to steal to end the game.

Their first series loss at Nationals Park since 2018 was their second in a row this season and their third in their past four series.

They were 11 games over .500 on May 23. They finished the month 32-26, six games over .500 for the first time since they were 22-16 on May 8.

The Padres had 10 hits for the first time in 11 games in Friday’s series opener here. The seven runs they scored that night equaled their total from their previous five games.

They hit three solo home runs and got three other hits in a 9-4 loss Saturday before getting six hits Sunday.

Their .218 batting average remains lowest in the major leagues and their .658 OPS second lowest.

They had a 27th quality start thrown against them on Sunday.

Since they have had an opener begin four games against them, that means that a pitcher has turned in a quality start against them in half the games he has had an opportunity to do so.

Sunday was Littell’s first quality start of the season, though he allowed the Guardians one run over seven innings on Monday as a bulk reliever. He has, in fact, now allowed just five runs in 23 innings over his past four games.

But the Nationals pitchers aren’t the caliber of the Phillies, against whom the Padres scored three runs while losing three games earlier in the week and against whom they play their next three games.

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