SAN DIEGO -- The losses are unsettling enough on their own merit, or demerit. The sameness of score only adds to the sense of irritation, as if some power beyond Bud Selig has chosen to call attention to the Mets' struggles by giving the same name to each of their last three defeats. Indeed, should their season prove to be as unrewarding as again seems possible, should this Mets team eventually suffer a less-than-gallant demise, its epitaph is likely to be: Padres 2, Mets 1.

Certainly, that identification is fully appropriate for what has happened thus far in three games in this SoCal setting. Two-to-one, two-to-one, two-to-one; it is a cadence of frustration for these players, a rhythm that riles them. It is the sickening sameness, except for the 2-1 loss that occurred Saturday night. This one deserves an asterisk for the variation on a theme. It lasted 10 innings.

Nine and half-plus, actually. Scott Hairston hit the fifth pitch of the bottom of the 10th, the fifth pitch thrown by Pedro Feliciano, over the distant wall in left-center field to achieve the preferred score. "Just like that," Brian Schneider said. "Are you kidding?"

The Mets catcher saw the run unfold from a unique perspective. He saw Feliciano's 3-1 fastball get too much plate, then hit too much bat, then cover too much distance. It was all too much 2-1.

Left fielder Damion Easley made a run and leap at the wall but "never had a chance." Neither did the Mets, even before the home run.

Hairston, whose tumbling catch Friday night had made sure the Mets didn't exceed one run in that loss, hit his ninth home run, the third allowed by Feliciano in 24 innings, and the second allowed by the Mets on the night. Oliver Perez had surrendered one to Michael Barrett -- not known for his power stroke -- five innings earlier.

And that was enough to subdue a team that has one run-scoring hit in 28 innings in this pitcher-friendly park, a team that had expected to have its way with the light-hitting Padres in a four-game series. "I can't explain it," Carlos Beltran said. He wasn't alone.

The Mets only could characterize and lament their experiences. "We should be able to score more than one run," Beltran said.

"It's tough to win," Carlos Delgado suggested, "when you score one run."

Or when the 10-inning hit total is six -- three by Delgado.

Or when a batting order produces no hits in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.

"We can't seem to find the big hit," Mets manager Willie Randolph said, borrowing a lament from the Mets' five-game losing streak of late May.

The Mets thought they had found the remedy for what ailed them then. Instead, they face the possibility of a second four-game sweep in less than a month. But at least they scored nine times when they lost four in Atlanta on May 20-22.

They can lean on Pedro Martinez on Sunday afternoon, and perhaps he can help. He did have two hits in his return from the disabled list on Tuesday. The Mets scored nine times in that game and eight in four subsequent games.

With the indignity of three straight 2-1 losses comes a place in franchise history; no Mets team had lost three straight by 2-1. Indeed, there had been six other instances of three successive 2-1 losses in history. The Padres have made history as well; their 2-1 victory against the Cubs Wednesday makes them the only team ever to win 2-1 in four successive games.

The loss and streak obscured an improved performance by Perez. And that's what the club had in mind before this one began. Perez pitched well enough to win under most circumstances. But the Mets scored once before his day ended.

When Perez struck out Edgar Gonzalez for the second out of the first inning, he had doubled the outs he had achieved in his previous start, Monday night, when he allowed six runs in a loss to the Giants. And he achieved 14 more outs before his departure. His 5 1/3 innings also brought four hits, one a home run by Barrett, two walks and two hit batsmen. The hit batters came in a three-batter sequence that prompted Perez's removal.

Joe Smith replaced Perez and hit Khalil Greene to load the bases, but then retired the side.

But what had the Mets dodged? "If you score one run, it doesn't matter if you give up two or 20," Delgado said.

By the time Barrett hit his first 2008 home run, the Mets' offense had shut down. Endy Chavez, starting in right field in place of Ryan Church who was again unavailable, had produced the team's daily run. He drove it in with a sacrifice fly against Cha Seung Baek in the second inning, another inning of inadequate production by the Mets offense. Chavez's RBI is the only one in the series by someone other than David Wright.

Chavez drove in the run after the Mets had loaded the bases on a leadoff single by Beltran, Delgado's first hit and a botched rundown by the Padres on a ground ball to third by Fernando Tatis. Without the botch, the Mets might have gone scoreless and ruined the three-game symmetry.

As it was, they had a chance to produce a multi-run inning but did nothing else. Schneider was walked intentionally, loading the bases. Perez fouled out and Jose Reyes grounded out. The Mets left the bases loaded for third time in a six-inning sequence that began on Friday night.

They had two hits in the third and two hits and a walk in the sixth, but produced only four more runners left on base. When pinch-hitter Raul Casanova grounded out with a runner on second base in the 10th inning, the Mets has two hits in 21 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the series.

The home run by Hairston put their offense out of its misery.