SAN DIEGO -- The Padres entered their four-game weekend series against the Mets as owners of the best record in baseball since the All-Star break. As a result, they'd built themselves some margin for error in the National League playoff race -- but certainly not enough to begin feeling comfortable.

A different type of Wild Card race has broken out in the second half of the season. If the first half was marred by mediocrity -- with a majority of the league hovering around .500 -- the second half has been about the teams that have separated themselves.

The Padres are one. But they aren't the only one. And there are only so many postseason places to go around.

With that backdrop, the Wild Card-chasing Mets came to town for a crucial series with all sorts of postseason implications. New York took the opener -- and, in the process, the season series and playoff tiebreaker -- 8-3 on Thursday night. The Padres have now lost consecutive games for the first time since the All-Star break.

As things stand, the Mets are the first team out of the postseason picture in the NL. In theory, that means every Padres win this weekend gets them closer to punching a postseason ticket. It also means that every loss drags them closer to the cut line.

Prior to the series opener, manager Mike Shildt did his best to downplay the importance of the weekend with the same thinking he’s used all season -- the same mantra he’s used to get the Padres 15 games above .500 and 4 1/2 games ahead of the Mets in the current standings.

"Every game in 162 is equally important as the other games,” Shildt said. “I'll continue to say this. I'll probably get asked more of these questions as the season progresses, and I'm going to give a similar answer that I feel strongly about, obviously. That's: We're just going to take care of today.

"I think it's a real danger to look and start to think about big picture and all these other things. You only have so much time and energy. Let's spend it on taking care of our business today."

The Padres had their ace lined up for Thursday’s opener. But right-hander Dylan Cease was hit hard in the top of the first inning. The Mets ambushed Cease, swinging early and often. Five balls left the bats of Mets hitters at 95 mph or harder in the frame.

“They were obviously aggressive,” Cease said. “Which really isn’t a problem if you execute pitches. But they got some good hits today, and obviously they won.”

Cease managed to limit the damage to only one run in the frame, and from there he settled in. Despite the early hard contact, Cease worked 6 1/3 frames, striking out seven and allowing three runs.

But the Padres’ offense did little against Mets starter Luis Severino. Their best chance came in the fifth after they’d loaded the bases with nobody out. Jake Cronenworth laced the hardest-hit ball of the game -- 110.9 mph off the bat -- on a hop to Jose Iglesias at second. Iglesias picked it and started a double play, and Severino was able to escape with just the one run allowed.

“The guy made a great play,” Cronenworth said. “That’s one of the hardest balls I’ve hit in my career. Just right at him.”

For the most part, that was that. The Padres’ bats came to life again in the bottom of the ninth -- but only after righty reliever Logan Gillaspie had surrendered five runs in the top of the inning.

The game was largely out of reach, though that didn’t stop the Padres from scoring two runs and putting two more runners aboard. The game only ended when Mets first baseman Pete Alonso made a diving play on another sharply hit ball from Cronenworth.

“We’re going to get championship effort out of this group every night,” Shildt said of the ninth inning. “It’s a really wonderful trait, special trait. Can’t win ‘em all. But it puts you in a pretty damn good position when you do that every night.”

The loss dropped the Padres 4 1/2 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West race -- coincidentally, the same gap as the one between themselves and the Mets. Not that they’ll spend too much time looking behind at those standings.

“Yeah, we lost a couple in a row,” Shildt said. “It’s going to happen. But yeah, I ride with this club. This club’s ready to get after it tomorrow already.”