Mets vs. Padres score: San Diego knocks out 101-win New York with one-hitter in

The San Diego Padres will continue on and the 101-win New York Mets are heading home. Sunday night the Padres dominated the Mets in Game 3 of their Wild Card Series matchup (SD 6, NY 0). Padres righty Joe Musgrove was dominant despite the Mets’ efforts to throw him out of rhythm, and the offense seemed to pick up every timely hit.

New York mustered only two baserunners in the game — a single and a walk in separate innings — and the Padres are the first team ever to throw a one-hitter in a winner-take all postseason game. They will now take on the rival Los Angeles Dodgers when the NLDS begins Tuesday.

Here are four takeaways from Game 3.

The Mets asked to check Musgrove for sticky stuff

It reeked of desperation. With his team down 4-0 in the sixth inning, Mets manager Buck Showalter asked the umpires to check Padres righty Joe Musgrove for foreign substances. Musgrove was dealing — only one baserunner allowed at the time — and Showalter was doing what he could to disrupt him or, ideally, get him out of the game.

It didn’t work. The umpires checked Musgrove, including touching his ears, and he remained in the game. He gestured toward the Mets dugout after a strikeout later in the inning, then pointed his ears at the crowd as he walked off the field after the inning.

Managers have always been able to ask the umpires to check a pitcher for foreign substances, though they rarely do because it is mutually assured destruction. Every team has pitchers using foreign substances, and if you checks someone else’s pitcher, they are going to ask to check your pitcher. It is the way of the world, which is why so few foreign substance checks are requested.

For what it’s worth, Musgrove’s velocity and spin rates were up in Game 3, though the increases fell within the range of normal start-to-start fluctuation, and within the range he showed during the regular season. Also, it’s a postseason elimination game. There’s adrenaline. Musgrove showing a velocity uptick is not the most surprising thing in the world given the circumstances.

In the end, Musgrove dominated before and after the foreign-substance check. He allowed a single and a walk in seven otherwise spotless innings, and the Mets did not have a runner make it a far as third base. According to MLB.com, Musgrove is the first pitcher in history to throw at least seven innings with no more than two…