SAN DIEGO — A third of the way into a confounding season, the San Diego Padres might be the best bad team in baseball. Or, the worst good team. It is difficult to say.Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies settled this, at least: The Padres are the first club since the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals to win 31 or more of its first 54 games with a collective OPS of .655 or lower.Behind Bob Gibson’s all-time pitching performance, those Cardinals went on to secure 97 victories and fall to the Detroit Tigers in seven World Series games. They would be the final games played before Major League Baseball, seeking to promote more offense, lowered the mound.These Padres, despite a big-name lineup, now face the challenge of joining a small group. Since the mound was lowered in 1969, just five teams have made the playoffs after logging a sub-.656 OPS through the first 54 games of a season. The only clubs to do so this century are the 2012 Oakland Athletics and the 2021 Milwaukee Brewers, both of which benefited from strong starting pitching.In losing a third consecutive game Tuesday, the Padres (31-23) displayed the vulnerability of their rotation and the ineptitude of their offense. No. 2 starter Randy Vásquez surrendered a two-out solo home run in each of the first three innings. San Diego did not reach base until Gavin Sheets, with the help of a bobble by Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, singled with two outs in the fourth. Manny Machado followed with a two-run homer.