SAN DIEGO -- There are no inflection points in April. The baseball calendar is too long for that.

But after a week like this one, the Padres' resolve is about to be tested -- and sooner than they would’ve liked.

That’s where things stand after Sunday's 8-6 loss to the Phillies at Petco Park, San Diego’s fourth straight defeat. Luis Campusano’s late three-run homer wasn’t enough to prevent the Padres from falling a season-low three games below .500.

Clearly, there's ample time to make up ground. (Five months, to be exact.) Then again, tell that to the 2023 Padres, who always had time left to make a run … right up until they didn’t.

“Obviously, [we’re] not that high after that series,” said Fernando Tatis Jr. “But we’ve got to flip the page, clean it up as a group and come out and play some better baseball.”

It starts on the mound. In Thursday’s series finale against the Rockies, the San Diego bullpen imploded, relinquishing a five-run eighth-inning lead. Over the weekend, it was the starting pitching that was uncharacteristically poor.

Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease and Michael King became the first trio of Padres starters to allow five or more earned runs in consecutive starts since Aug. 4-6, 2022. On Sunday, King allowed a trio of two-run homers, including two from Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott.

“I just didn’t keep them in the yard,” King said. “That’s not a recipe for success.”

The Padres are resolute in their belief they’ll punch back, as they face their first adversity of the young season -- their longest losing streak and their first sweep. After the game, Musgrove, Cease and King met in the area around King’s locker for what King called a “debrief.”

“It’s that kind of brotherhood that gets you through this kind of stuff,” King said. “I’ve got all the faith in the world that Joe’s going to have a bounceback. I’ve got all the faith that Dylan’s going to have a bounceback.

“Hopefully they have the same faith in me, and hopefully the next time through, the rotation is a much better one.”

The Padres need it to be. The week ahead brings series against the D-backs and Reds, two teams who stand in the way of the Padres’ postseason ambitions.

Of course, the short-term ambitions are smaller. Before there can be thoughts of a September playoff push, the Padres must right the ship in April. On Sunday, manager Mike Shildt tweaked his lineup, moving Jurickson Profar to the leadoff spot for the first time all season, while dropping Xander Bogaerts to fifth and Ha-Seong Kim to seventh.

It remains to be seen whether those changes stick. But whatever the solution, the Padres need to rebound from a week in which they split a series against the last-place Rockies and were swept by a perennial NL contender in Philadelphia.

“It will always be about the execution for me,” said Shildt. “We’ll handle it if there’s any lack of focus or lack of effort -- and there’s none of that. There’s not even close to any of that.

“This is a focused group, a group that’s giving the appropriate effort. Now, it’s just about making sure we don’t get too sideways with worrying about streaks, one way or the other. … The fact of the matter is: We just want to continue to execute and play solid baseball.”

On that front, the Padres’ defense was equal parts solid and dazzling this weekend. They didn’t make an error across three games, and Tatis punctuated the defensive effort by spinning and making a ridiculous throw to nab Trea Turner at second as he tried to stretch a single into a double in the ninth.

Offensively, the Padres fell victim to some rough batted-ball luck. Their line drives found fielders this weekend, while the Phillies’ broken-bat bloopers found grass. There was Jackson Merrill’s liner up the middle in the second on Sunday -- snagged behind the back by Phillies starter Taijuan Walker, who started a double play. There was Tatis’ deep drive to left-center -- tracked down by Johan Rojas as he slammed into the wall.

Shildt staunchly believes the process is OK. But ...

“It feels like we’re losing the game of inches right now,” Tatis said. “I’m just going to put it that way. But there’s a lot of baseball in front of us. We’ve just got to keep grinding.”

A lot of baseball in front of them. Until there isn’t. This team knows how that goes.