Both clubs were treating this getaway day as one last shot to leave Citi Field on top, with the two teams having split the first two meetings of the week.
Manny Machado had been arguably the hottest bat in either lineup over the previous couple weeks, and Fernando Tatis Jr. had chipped in his own pop, giving San Diego swagger to spare heading into the finale.
New York cracked things open with a two-run 4th, and San Diego never fully answered — a run in the 5th wasn't enough to change the shape of the game, and the Mets tacked on two more in the 7th to put it away.
The costlier development that inning arrived when Xander Bogaerts left the game with a right hamstring injury — a fresh subtraction from a Padres lineup that's already been picking up the pieces around Giolito, Musgrove and half its bullpen all month.
Neither club is walking away from this series fully healthy. San Diego heads home needing King and the front of the rotation to string together enough length to hold a wild-card lane, while New York keeps navigating the summer with an increasingly thin bench and pitching staff of its own.