SAN DIEGO -- The Padres could ill afford to lose any games the rest of the season to keep their slim playoff chances alive.

Saturday’s 5-2 11-inning loss to the Cardinals was a double whammy, as it both reduced San Diego’s already low playoff odds and ended its season-high eight-game winning streak. With the loss, the Padres moved to five games back of a playoff spot with seven games remaining in the season.

Their loss on Saturday was, in many ways, a good representation of the larger issues they’ve dealt with all year. With the loss, the Padres moved to 0-12 in extra-innings games, joining the 1969 Montreal Expos as the only teams to lose a dozen extra-innings games without winning one. It was also another example of the uneven performance that the Padres have shown this season.

“We had a couple of opportunities that we felt really good about. It’s been a problem in extra innings obviously,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “There was a different feeling today. It felt like we were going to finish it. It’s a little on the stunning side, based on the way that we’ve been playing and the types of games we’ve been winning.”

Padres pitchers did all they could to keep the team in the game. They allowed two runs in the first nine innings before sending the game to extras, where the Cardinals scored the deciding three runs against Scott Barlow in the 11th inning. It was kick-started by four scoreless innings from Nick Martinez, the club’s Swiss Army knife who operated as a starter on Saturday. He was followed by six Padres relievers who combined to allow three runs (two earned) in seven innings.

A Padres offense that entered the game second in the Majors in runs per game (5.95) in the month of September could not support the pitching staff. While they managed only six hits (all singles), the offense walked a season-high 12 times. The opportunities were certainly there. They just couldn’t capitalize on them.

“That was the difference today. The Cardinals got some big hits later on with [runners in scoring position],” Melvin said. “1-for-17 [with RISP] is a lot. We didn’t come through.”

Saturday’s loss was essentially a step closer to putting the final touches on the Padres' season. As well as this club played -- their 14-6 record is the best in the Majors in September -- the odds were still against them despite their recent winning streak. Even if the Padres win their remaining seven games, it’d take the perfect combination of teams ahead of them (mainly the Cubs and D-backs) having historic collapses.

Which makes the end of the season all the more perplexing if not infuriating for those who expected this team to build on the 2022 season. After winning two playoff series last year and reaching the NL Championship Series, the sky-high expectations placed on this team were warranted. Few teams rivaled the sheer star power San Diego had and it had last year’s results to back it up.

As the season slowly played out, though, the Padres were seemingly never able to get it going more than a game or two at a time. Except the script flipped when the team got to September and it couldn’t stop winning games. After not winning more than three games in a row all season, the Padres pulled off an eight-game winning streak. With time running out, however, it was too little, too late.

The Padres’ playoff odds dropped to 0.1 percent, per FanGraphs, after Saturday’s loss. Their magic number for being eliminated from a Wild Card spot is at three. They’ll look to keep those odds alive on Sunday, with Michael Wacha getting his second career start against his former team in the Cardinals.