SAN DIEGO -- The Padres are running out of time to find answers on offense. They're running out of time to solve their long-standing pitching crisis. They're running out of time to chase down the Reds in the National League Wild Card race.

With 5 1/2 weeks left to play, the Padres are running out of time to save their season.

A season that began with legitimate World Series aspirations is now teetering after a three-game sweep at the hands of the rival Dodgers at Petco Park this week. The finale on Thursday night offered a particularly cruel twist, with Max Scherzer -- a Padres target at the Trade Deadline, who ended up with Los Angeles instead -- tossing 7 2/3 scoreless frames in a 4-0 Dodgers victory.

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“We’ve got a month left,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., the Padres’ star shortstop-turned-right-fielder. “We’re pretty confident in the group that we have and the players that we have. We’ve just got to get it together, come together, keep trusting in what we have and just keep pushing.”

Easier said than done, especially considering the schedule that awaits San Diego down the stretch -- the toughest in the Majors, based on winning percentage.

The Padres have dropped four straight games and 12 of 14, falling two games behind Cincinnati for the second Wild Card spot. For the first time all season, the Padres sit two games out of a playoff spot.

It’s not for lack of effort or desire, the Padres are quick to say, noting that, if anything, it’s been the opposite: They’re pressing. Still, amid all of their struggles, the Padres have been playing like a noticeably different team -- without the swagger and the assertiveness that defined their first half. Even the happy-go-lucky Tatis could acknowledge as much.

“[I am] a really positive guy, but this is how it works,” Tatis said. “When we’re not doing good, it’s definitely hard for us to smile, especially in a hard stretch like this. It’s not like our energy is lower or we’re slowing down. No.”

Strangely enough, the biggest reason for the Padres’ late-summer swoon hasn’t been the makeshift pitching staff, riddled with injuries. Instead, it has been a fully healthy offense incapable of carrying its weight.

In the three games against the Dodgers -- including 16 innings on Wednesday -- the Padres went an inconceivable 10-for-111 at the plate, for a .090 batting average. It marked the first time since 1981 they were held to four hits or fewer in all three games of a three-game series. Resolute as ever, Padres manager Jayce Tingler insisted it would turn.

“We work too hard and have too much talent,” said Tingler. “I think it’s more than faith -- I know it’s going to come. I know that we’re one big inning away from getting it going.”

In a pinch offensively, typically the Padres would turn to Tatis or Manny Machado. But lately their two biggest bats have been ice cold, too. Since his two-homer game in his return from the injured list, Tatis is hitting just .111 over the past nine games. In that same span, Machado is batting .162.

“You go through these stretches,” Tatis said. “Definitely, we’ve got to find a way, and we’ve got to find a way real quick how to turn that around and figure it out as a team.”

As for the pitching side of things, that puzzle feels like it’s finally starting to come together. Yu Darvish, who has been battling lower back tightness, allowed four runs while striking out six over six innings in his return from the injured list. He was particularly sharp toward the end of his outing, retiring nine of the final 10 hitters he faced. It was a solid, if unspectacular, return for one of the Padres’ most important arms.

Darvish’s start came on the heels of what was arguably Blake Snell’s best outing as a Padre on Wednesday night. The former Cy Young Award winner struggled for the first four months of the season, but he has put it all together in August, a month in which he owns a 2.12 ERA. Throw in Joe Musgrove’s steadiness, and the fearsome rotation that the Padres concocted in January might finally be ready to click. (Just in time for their offense to sputter.)

“That part, super encouraged with,” Tingler said of his rotation. “And I know it’s easy to say we’re struggling offensively on the position-player side. But this group -- our heads are up. We’re confident. We’re going to move forward. We’re going to get this thing going.”

The sooner the better; they’re running out of time.