SAN DIEGO -- The Brewers and Padres – as you’d probably expect from two of the best teams in baseball over the first quarter of the season -- staged a tense, tightly contested series at Petco Park this week.

And ultimately, Milwaukee took two of three, because, well, the Padres didn’t score enough. Five runs across 28 innings, to be exact, including just one in their 2-1 loss in Wednesday’s finale.

“That's definitely a team that's going to be there in October,” said Padres DH Luke Voit. “We played a lot of close games. That's a good thing. But I feel like these at-bats have got to get more consistent. ... That's a tough team, but we're just as good as those guys, if not better. We definitely had opportunities to win all three of those games and fell short.”

Here are three quick takeaways from a series in which all three games were decided late:

1. Where is the slugging going to come from?

Eventually, from Fernando Tatis Jr. But the Padres’ superstar shortstop remains unable to swing a bat. He underwent imaging on his injured wrist on Monday, but the MRI did not show enough progress for Tatis to receive clearance to start swinging. All along, the team has said it won’t have a timetable on his return until that happens.

In the meantime, the Padres’ lack of power has been exposed. They’re reaching base at an acceptable clip. But entering play Wednesday, their .359 slugging percentage ranked 23rd in the Majors and their 32 homers were tied for 25th. In their two losses to Milwaukee, the Padres didn’t record an extra-base hit.

“One swing of the bat, couple runs -- we haven’t been able to do that,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “The home run hasn’t been there for us, and in the game nowadays, home runs are important. We just haven’t hit our stride with that.”

Voit has a theory as to why:

“Me,” he said. “And the five extra-base hits I’ve had. I've been playing pretty pathetic. I'm not trying to dwell on it. But I've got to start hitting for some power. That's what I came here for, and I'm not doing it right now.”

Indeed, it’s been a struggle for Voit, who is slugging just .310 on the season. But he’s not the only one. Jake Cronenworth (.331), Wil Myers (.313), Austin Nola (.274) and Trent Grisham (.250) have all posted slugging percentages well below their career averages.

2. The rotation remains elite.

Yu Darvish was the latest Padres starter to turn in an excellent performance this week. He pitched scoreless ball for six innings, before running into trouble in the seventh.

The Brewers put men on the corners with one out before Rowdy Tellez laced an opposite-field double. That prompted Melvin to emerge from the dugout to meet with Darvish on the mound. The two spoke briefly, and Melvin opted to let Darvish remain in the game.

“I wanted to give him the chance to get a strikeout there,” Melvin said. “He tends to find a way to do that. … I was comfortable with him. I was confident. And he wanted it.”

Darvish got the out. Just not the strikeout. Tyrone Taylor lifted a sacrifice fly to left field that would prove to be the difference in the game.

Nonetheless, it was yet another quality outing from a Padres starter. Darvish allowed two runs on three hits over 6 2/3 innings. He’s been much better than his 3.76 ERA would indicate, as nine of the 22 earned runs he’s allowed came in one anomalous, early April start in San Francisco.

No team in baseball has seen its rotation chew up more innings this season than the 247 1/3 devoured by the Padres. Their starters have combined to post a 3.31 ERA.

3. The margins are probably too thin for the Padres’ good.

Consider the five runs the Padres managed to score this series: Three run-scoring groundouts, Trent Grisham’s safety squeeze and José Azocar’s walk-off single (which plated an automatic runner).

The margins are thin, because, as mentioned above, the Padres simply haven’t been able to find that big hit lately. They’ve relied heavily on Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer this season. But they need production elsewhere.

In a three-game sweep of the Giants over the weekend, it looked like help had finally arrived. The Padres scored 20 runs in those games, including 10 in the finale.

“On the road trip, we had some really good games offensively,” Melvin said. “A lot probably had to do with [the Brewers'] pitching in this series. Again, we played well enough defensively to get ourselves in a position where one swing of the bat, offensively, can make a difference. We just didn’t make that swing in the last couple games.”