Tonight’s game began promisingly enough, but ultimately the Mets fell to Brewers 3-2 on another night where the bats showed very few signs of life and the game ended on as soul-crushing a note as possible. There is not a single thing going right for the Mets right now and this game exemplified all of it.

Two solo homers accounted for all of the Mets’ runs. Juan Soto took Brandon Woodruff deep in the first inning to put the Mets on the board and Starling Marte doubled the Mets’ lead to lead off the top of the second with a towering shot. The Mets also managed to draw a couple of walks in the early going against Woodruff, who rarely walks anyone. But as always seems to be the case lately, the Mets failed to fully capitalize and allowed the opposing starter to settle in as they watched their lead wither away.

Kodai Senga also manifested another troubling pattern exhibited by the team during this losing stretch: he cruised through the first four innings and then things went south in the blink of an eye in the fifth, sparked by one bad play. In this case, the bad play was by Senga himself. Blake Perkins hit a dribbler in front of the plate to lead off the fifth inning and Senga came off the mound to field it, but bobbled the ball, which allowed Perkins to reach first base safely. Senga then grooved a pitch to Brice Turang and Turang absolutely covered it for a game-tying, two-run bomb. Senga then got Caleb Durbin to pop out to short for the first out, but he issued a walk to the next batter Joey Ortiz. Sal Frelick then hit a grounder that should have been the second out, but catcher’s interference was called on Francisco Alvarez and both Ortiz and Frelick remained safely on base.

“Let’s see if this comes back to bite the Mets,” Steve Gelbs (filling in for Gary Cohen on play-by-play on SNY) said. The real question is: When does it not come back to bite the Mets? Senga, unable to put the inning to bed, walked William Contreras to load the bases. And suddenly a starting pitcher who was coasting was out of the game. Brooks Raley came on in relief and found himself in a favorable 0-2 count to Isaac Collins, but then threw a pitch he’d rather have back that struck Collins in the foot, forcing home the go-ahead run. Raley did not make the same mistake to Christian Yelich and struck him out on three pitches on a borderline check swing call and then got Andrew Vaughn to ground out to finally end the inning.

But the damage had been done and the Mets’ offense wilted in the face of a one-run deficit. Outside of Raley’s one crucial mistake, the Mets’ bullpen did its job, keeping the game within reach. Ryne Stanek contributed two outs and Gregory Soto worked himself out of a jam to pitch a scoreless seventh. Meanwhile, Woodruff pitched seven innings, striking out eight Mets. Abner Uribe relieved him in the eighth and issued a two-out walk to Francisco Lindor, but Juan Soto grounded out to second to end the inning and snuff out the small spark of a rally. Tyler Rogers worked around a walk (and a subsequent stolen base) to Brice Turang to pitch a scoreless eighth, assisted by a nice play by Francisco Lindor on a sharp grounder by Joey Ortiz on the final out of the inning.

Starling Marte doubled off Trevor Megill with two outs in the ninth inning—the Mets’ first hit since a Jeff McNeil single in the fourth. And McNeil followed up with another hit, but mere days after not sending a runner home cost the Mets a game, this time Mike Sarbaugh sent Starling Marte around third. And he was gunned down at the plate on a perfect throw by Blake Perkins. Because of course he was. And with that, barring a late-inning Rangers comeback, the Mets stand to fall 3.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL East as their season continues to spiral.

Big Mets winner: Starling Marte, +10.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Kodai Senga, -19.4% WPA
Mets pitchers: -5.3% WPA
Mets hitters: -44.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto’s solo homer in the first, +10.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Brice Turang’s game-tying homer in the fifth, -23.4% WPA