SAN DIEGO -- Among all the discouraging numbers that paint the picture of these 2023 Padres -- and, really, there are quite a few of them -- this one ranks among the most confounding:

On the season, San Diego boasts a grand total of 21 comeback wins. Only the last-place A’s, Royals and Cardinals have fewer. For a lineup loaded with this many superstars, coming from behind shouldn’t be so difficult.

Yet, it continues to be. On Tuesday night at Petco Park, the Padres were again handed an opportunity to creep back toward the fringes of the National League Wild Card race. They proceeded to fall behind the Marlins, 3-0, in the third inning -- and lose by that very score.

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“Tonight we didn’t do enough of putting them in trouble,” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “... I’m not saying, like, hit two homers. But creating traffic, we didn’t do a really good job with that.”

Indeed, San Diego mustered only three hits, as Marlins lefty Jesús Luzardo outdueled fellow southpaw Blake Snell.

Prior to first pitch, both the Cubs and Giants lost, presenting the Padres with an opportunity to gain ground on the two teams they’re chasing in the NL Wild Card race. Instead, they dropped another game against another team they’re chasing. With only 35 games remaining, the Padres realize they’re running out of time.

“You can’t get that back,” Bogaerts said. “It’s not like where we were early on when we were like, ‘We have 110 games left.’ We don’t. … Every loss should feel double.”

Jorge Soler hit a 442-foot moonshot to the batter’s eye, opening the Marlins’ three-run third inning against Snell. Then Miami tacked on two more runs via a slew of singles, before Fernando Tatis Jr. ended the frame with a 97.8 mph strike to the plate to nail Jake Burger.

Snell was otherwise his usual excellent self, and he didn’t allow another run across six innings, finishing the night with eight strikeouts. He was quality, even if it wasn’t peak Snell, by any stretch.

“It hurts losing to them, especially when I know that we have the team to beat them -- to beat every team we play,” Snell said. “You just want to win, get to the playoffs, feel that feeling again. There’s nothing like the playoffs. So, hopefully, we can get it going, start winning and give this city what they deserve, a playoff team.”

Snell got uncharacteristically fiery after surrendering Soler’s home run. He barked in Soler’s direction on the mound after Soler executed an emphatic bat drop in front of home plate. Afterward, Snell wouldn’t divulge the source of his frustration, saying only, “I ain’t going to talk about it.” But he acknowledged allowing that frustration over the home run to linger.

“I would say the two batters after the home run, yeah, I let my emotions get the best of me, gave them good pitches to hit,” Snell said. “After that, I controlled it, got it back into sync. I’m not perfect. Trying to be. You can’t have those little blow-ups.”

From there, however, the old Snell was returned. His MLB-leading ERA currently sits at 2.73. Meanwhile, the Padres’ bullpen followed with three scoreless frames.

So what if Snell -- the best pitcher in baseball for three months, with a 1.48 ERA in that span -- proved to be human and allowed three runs? That deficit shouldn’t be insurmountable, considering the offensive firepower in the Padres’ lineup.

But the San Diego offense couldn’t solve Luzardo and then went down quietly against the Miami bullpen. The 2-3-4-5 of Tatis-Juan Soto-Manny Machado-Bogaerts combined to go 0-for-13.

“If I had an answer for you, I’d tell you,” manager Bob Melvin said of the Padres’ inability to come from behind. “But we just have not had good late-inning at-bats, and it’s gone on most of the year. It’s something, like we’ve said often, that was a strength last year. It has not been this year. Maybe sometimes it gets us to snowball. You tighten up a little bit late in games. You want to do a little bit too much.”

The Padres find themselves staring down a pivotal rubber match on Wednesday afternoon, a crucial game for their faint playoff hopes. If they beat the Marlins, they’ll win the season series and own the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two.

And if they lose? Well, as Bogaerts noted, losses hurt double at this time of year. And the Padres’ playoff hopes can only take so many blows before one of them ends up being a knockout.