Alarming: The San Diego Padres just lost a vital player.

This is what a team that hovers around .500 often looks like. This is what the Padres are.

They are 37-38. They are thrilling then boring. Powerful then ineffective. Smart then bone-headed.

They reached what is so far their peak of three games over .500 on June 1 and are four under .500 since then.

They have been a losing team more often (32 days) than anything else this season. They have spent 23 days at .500 and 20 with a winning record.

“It just feels like we just keep taking two steps forward and one step back,” Jake Cronenworth said.

If you don’t take him literally — because 2-1 over and over adds up to a great record — he is spot on.

Why we would be surprised at this point is the only thing that is surprising.

You know what? Mike Shildt was right. This isn’t a rollercoaster after all. (If you think so, you need to have ridden better roller coasters.)

Even though the ups and downs are somewhat dizzying, they have become predictable.

The Padres have lost five in a row twice and three in a row twice. They have won four in a row once and three in a row four other times. They refuse to die and refuse to live.

We talk in this space quite often about all the things the Padres do that good teams do. We also spend a fair amount of time discussing the bad things the Padres do that bad teams do.

A little bit of all that showed up in their 11-6 loss to the Mets yesterday. The Padres had another big inning and fought back. But they were in a big hole because another starting pitcher had a bad day.