Maybe the Mets were trying to lean into the symbolism.
They dug a significant hole in the early going.
They then turned to a relentless offense that swung them back into contention.
But on Sunday, the Mets were not able to do what they have done often through the first half of the season: complete the comeback.
The Mets reached the midpoint of the season falling short in one more come-from-behind bid with a 10-5, 11-inning loss to the Astros in front of 26,853 at Citi Field.
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In Game 81 of the season, the Mets (40-41) snapped a streak of eight straight series without a series defeat.
In the rubber game, they trailed the Astros by four, began the comeback in the sixth inning, tied it in the seventh but lost the contest in extra innings.
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“Big picture, it’s been a tale of two seasons, even in this first half,” Brandon Nimmo said before referencing the May 29 clubhouse huddle that may have turned the season around. “I would say pre-team meeting, post-team meeting. You’ve seen a team that has played really, really good baseball since that team meeting.”
The Mets lost a series for the first time since that sweep at the Dodgers’ hands on May 29 that brought them to 22-33 and prompted a meeting in which the club put a further emphasis on accountability, telling one another that there is no pressure for a team that no longer had expectations.
The Mets finished June at 16-8, the .667 win percentage their best in a June since they went 18-8 (.692) in 2010.
Perhaps the storm that rolled through before the bottom of the ninth and prompted a 2-hour, 47-minute delay cooled off the hot club.
Or maybe the Mets just once again ran out of relievers.
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Each team scored once in the 10th — Houston on a Chas McCormick single off Adam Ottavino, the Mets on a double from Nimmo — before the Mets’ thin bullpen became evident in the 11th.
Matt Festa, a 31-year-old Brooklyn native making his club debut after a call-up earlier in the day, allowed three straight well-struck singles that helped the Astros create distance.
Houston’s fourth hit of the frame, a Trey Cabbage double that knocked in two more, essentially put the game away.
For a second straight day, manager Carlos Mendoza essentially had no one to turn to with Edwin Diaz suspended and his roster spot not eligible to be filled.
“We saw it [in Saturday’s loss]. You saw it today,” the manager said of the bullpen problem. “We knew at some point we’d be facing some kind of adversity here.”
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In the bottom of the inning, Tyrone Taylor, Luis Torrens and Jeff McNeil went down in order, bringing the Mets two games back of the Cardinals for an NL wild-card spot.
Until the ending, the game mirrored a season in which the Mets lost their first five games and fell to 11 games under .500 this month before the offense awoke.
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They slump hard, and they break through hard.
Facing a string of Astros relievers on a bullpen day, the Mets were held hitless until a Nimmo single in the sixth inning.
They were down, 4-0, after five, Luis Severino able to keep his club within striking distance.
The offense broke through in the sixth, when Nimmo’s single and Pete Alonso’s double sparked a threat.
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With two outs, the revelation that has been Mark Vientos came through with a two-run double over third baseman Alex Bregman’s head to cut the lead in half.
The lead was gone the next inning.
Torrens walked before Nimmo, behind 0-2 and with two outs, reversed a 97.8 mph Bryan Abreu fastball over the wall in left-center, the game-tying shot Nimmo’s 100th career home run.
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Adrian Houser pitched two scoreless innings behind a serviceable Severino (seven innings, four runs allowed on eight hits and a walk) and received some help in the eighth, when Torrens gunned down Joey Loperfido attempting to steal second, Torrens’ first of two base-running victims.
But the storm then hit and soon after so did the Astros, which helped to halt the Mets’ momentum.
A good month finished on a bad note.
“I think [this run has] given us a real good argument for going for it and trying to make the playoffs and make this push,” Nimmo said. “But there’s still a lot of work left to be done.”
