Mets fall to Padres as Peterson implodes; Machado grand slam sinks New York
Padres rally with a fifth-inning grand slam as Mets' rotation questions deepen with a high-profile late-season loss at Citi Field.
The New York Mets’ postseason push took another hit as the San Diego Padres beat them 7-4 at Citi Field on Wednesday night, with left-hander David Peterson enduring another rough outing and Manny Machado delivering a decisive fifth-inning grand slam. New York’s lead for the NL’s final wild-card spot slipped to 1.5 games as the Padres surged, and the Mets’ plans for a postseason rotation grew hazier by the inning.
In the early going, Fernando Tatis Jr. opened with a single and Luis Arraez drew a walk, setting the table for an early Padres threat. Gavin Sheets followed with a sacrifice fly to put San Diego in front 1-0. The Mets answered moments later when Pete Alonso connected for a two-out homer in the first to knot the score at 1-1. Jake Cronenworth’s RBI single in the second gave San Diego a 2-1 edge, and Starling Marte tied it at 2-2 with a solo homer in the fourth. The tone of the night moved quickly toward a high-leverage moment in the fifth, when Peterson loaded the bases with one out before Machado cleared the left-field fence for his 14th career grand slam — the most among active players — turning a tight game into a 6-2 Padres lead.
Juan Soto added a solo homer in the fifth to stretch the margin to 6-3, slicing the Mets’ deficit but not enough to overturn the inning’s damage. It was Soto’s 41st homer of the season, tying the career high he set last year with the Yankees.
The Mets briefly threatened in the middle innings as Dom Hamel, in his major-league debut, delivered a scoreless sixth. Francisco Álvarez homered leading off the bottom of the seventh to pull New York within two at 6-4, but Soto’s bid for a game-tying shot in the ninth was snuffed by Robert Suárez. Ramón Laureano then added a ninth-inning homer to provide the final margin of 7-4 for San Diego. 
The defeat put added strain on a Mets rotation that has circled back to youth amid heavy workload on veteran arms. Peterson, who represented the Mets in the All-Star Game, has fallen into a late-season funk. Since Aug. 6, over eight starts he has posted a 7.58 ERA and failed to complete six innings in six of those outings.
In the aftermath, New York announced a youth-forward approach for the rest of the series and into the postseason scenario. Jonah Tong is slated to start the series rubber game in the coming day, the first of three straight rookies in the slate with Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean following him. The Mets’ plan to mix youth with experience comes as they try to solidify a postseason rotation and assess what they have behind Peterson and the rest of the staff.
Alonso’s solo homer in the first inning was his 36th of the season and his 119th RBI, underscoring the continued power in New York’s lineup even as the club fell short on this night. Marte supplied the other Mets run with a fourth-inning homer, his ninth of the season, and his performance against lefty pitching in particular kept the Mets competitive at times.
The standings context remained tight: New York still led the Diamondbacks by 1.5 games for the NL’s third and final wild-card berth, with the Reds and Giants two games back in the chase. The Padres’ win kept San Diego within reach of playoff pressure as the calendar moves toward October, while the Mets turn toward a youth-first approach to closing the season and evaluating pieces for 2026.
The series concludes Thursday, with Tong taking the mound as the first chapter of a three-rookie-armed rotation shift. Sproat and McLean are next in line, representing a deliberate rebuild-within-a-season push that the organization hopes will pay dividends in the future. 
