SAN DIEGO — Shift happens.
The defensive maneuvering that had deprived the Mets of several hits in the early and middle innings Thursday night became a blessing of sorts for them with two outs in the seventh, as visions of the first no-hitter in Padres history were fluttering through Petco Park.
Against an over-shifted infield, Yoenis Cespedes hit a harmless roller through the second-base hole, spoiling Colin Rea’s bid to venture where no Padres pitcher had ever gone. For the Mets, avoiding the no-no was the biggest highlight of a 5-3 loss to the NL West basement dwellers.
“We were aware of what was going on and the job is to go to home plate as a team and get the job done to get a hit,” said Cespedes, who also stroked a two-run homer in the ninth against Brad Hand.
Jacob deGrom (3-1) was erratic with his offspeed pitches in allowing three earned runs over five innings and Logan Verrett had a shaky sixth in which he allowed two runs, one earned.
The same Mets bats that had blistered the Reds, Giants and Braves on the last homestand with a barrage that left the team with 38 homers in its previous 18 games, didn’t awaken until the ninth, when Curtis Granderson and Cespedes homered, accounting for the runs.
The no-hit watch was fully on beginning with Alexei Ramirez’s tough-hop grab of Granderson’s chopper toward the middle that became the final out of the sixth. Earlier in the inning, Rea caught pinch-hitter Alejandro De Aza looking at strike three, after Kevin Plawecki was retired to start the frame.
Rea retired David Wright and Michael Conforto to begin the seventh before Cespedes’ roller through the infield ended the drama. Plawecki added a single in the eighth for the Mets’ second hit.
If not for the emphatic shifting employed by the Padres, the Mets very well could have had four or five hits before Cespedes’ single.
“We hit some balls good again tonight,” manager Terry Collins said. “But we didn’t make the pitches we normally make tonight.”
This was hardly the manner in which the Mets wanted to open an 11-game road trip that will also take them to Los Angeles and Colorado, completing a stretch of 17 games in as many days. But with rain in the forecast the next two days here, the possibility exists the Mets will receive an unscheduled break this weekend.
Derek Norris gave the Padres a nice boost with a solo homer in the sixth against Verrett that put the Mets in a 4-0 hole. It was the 15th homer surrendered this season by the Mets, who have hit 42. Conforto’s throwing error later in the inning gave the Padres another run.
In his shakiest start of the season, deGrom lasted just five innings and allowed three earned runs on eight hits with a walk and two strikeouts. The righty was removed for a pinch-hitter in the sixth with the Padres leading 3-0.
The Padres scored in three straight innings to start the game against deGrom. Wil Myers hammered a slider over the fence in left-center in the first to give the Padres a quick run. The blast was the first allowed by deGrom this season in his four starts.
The pitcher Rea’s first hit of the season — an RBI single in the second on a slider — accounted for the Padres’ second run, and Ramirez’s bloop RBI double made it 3-0 in the third inning.
“I got some guys with two strikes on them and I just couldn’t put them away,” deGrom said. “Leaving offspeed in the middle and giving them a chance and sometimes throwing it and not even close to the zone and then it goes to 3-2 and there’s a pretty good chance there’s a fastball coming there so then they end up getting a hit off that.”