Mets waste scoring chances in tight loss to Phillies as Andy Green’s arrival doesn’t bring instant jolt

See more of our coverage in your search results.

A chance to win a game. A chance to win a series. A chance to seize momentum under interim manager Andy Green, and a chance to begin a streak that might rescue a team that is hurtling toward the trade deadline.

All of those chances were wasted on an afternoon in which wasted chances became the theme.

The Mets mounted threat after threat followed by disappointment after disappointment, continually letting Phillies pitchers slip out of jams in what became yet another loss, this one 5-4 at Citi Field in front of 38,770, who were lively in moments of hope and furious in the more numerous moments of despair.

“We just didn’t bring guys home today,” said Green, whose Mets (35-49) dropped another game — that’s eight of nine — and another series — that’s four straight — and have not been instantly transformed under the new manager.

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

They continue to find ways to lose, Sunday going 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position and leaving 14 on base to ruin their chances of stealing the game and the series.

And yes, it would have been a steal. They played without Francisco Lindor, who is being eased back into an everyday role following a two-month absence with a calf strain. The lineup without him featured cleanup hitter Eric Wagaman and Nos. 6-9, who entered with OPS marks of .644 (Mark Vientos), .530 (Tyrone Taylor), .586 (Brett Baty) and .569 (Luis Torrens). In several key moments, Green left Lindor’s bat on the bench, determined to give the shortstop a full day of rest.

“He was tempting,” Green said of Lindor, who played just three rehab games and had not played back-to-back contests until Friday and Saturday. “He had the day [off] entirely.”

With their rotation options depleted and no fifth starter to give the ball, the Mets cobbled together a version of a bullpen game without the unit’s best arms because Devin Williams, Luke Weaver and Huascar Brazobán had pitched on three of four days and A.J. Minter went longer Saturday (1 ²/₃ innings) than he had since 2021.

So after Cionel Pérez (clean first inning) and Tobias Myers (three innings, three runs), Kodai Senga (five innings, two runs) was forced to provide length as a reliever and was burned in the seventh. If Green had another arm to turn to, he probably would have, but Senga remained for the top of the Phillies order and served up a towering, two-run homer to Kyle Schwarber that became the difference.

Still, the Mets had a chance — many of them, in fact. Their last good one arrived in the eighth, when Orion Kerkering walked the bases loaded with one out. But after Kerkering had thrown nine straight balls, Ronny Mauricio swung at a 1-0 fastball and popped out before Francisco Alvarez swung through high heat, getting booed on his walk back to the dugout.

“[At] different points in time in the game today, there were takes on for guys, and then at different points in time they were turned loose,” Green said. “We weren’t able to get it just right.”

An inning prior, it was Baty stranding two by grounding out. For the first five innings against Jesús Luzardo, the Mets went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, lowlighted by the fourth inning: They put two runners on without an out only to strike out three straight times, Vientos hearing the jeers in whiffing to end the rally.

A bright spot popped up in the fifth — when Carson Benge poked a left-on-left, first-pitch RBI single against Luzardo that cut the deficit to 3-1 — but they proceeded to load the bases for Bo Bichette, who struck out, and Wagaman, who flied out.

Another bright spot in the form of another young outfielder appeared in the sixth, when pinch hitter A.J. Ewing sat on a breaking ball and smoked a two-run shot to right field for his fourth homer of the season to tie it up. A walk and a single later, Benge won a battle against another lefty, Kyle Backhus, crushing a pitch that deflected off Backhus’ glove for a fielder’s choice that pushed the Mets ahead 4-3.

But the lead would not last because the Mets could not extend it.

“That’s just baseball,” said Ewing, who likely will be one of the few reasons to watch the Mets in what would be a wasted August and September. “I mean, it’s hard.”