The impossible happened: The Mets rallied in the ninth inning.
Then came the predictable in this maddening season: They still lost.
One moment, a sold-out Citi Field crowd of 43,412 was rocking.
The next, it was as quiet as a library, stunned as Daylen Lile sprinted around the bases for an inside-the-park, two-run homer.
It capped a wild, back-and-forth 5-3 loss in 11 innings to the playing-out-the-string Nationals that had a little bit of everything.
There were four errors, a catcher’s interference, a rare Mets ninth-inning rally and Lile’s round-tripper off Tyler Rogers that bounced off the wall and far enough away from Cedric Mullins that the speedy designated hitter could score.
“We don’t have too much time. But the one thing we can do here is we turn the page because we have a one o’clock tomorrow,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets fell to 0-66 when trailing after eight innings this year. “So we got to turn the page and get ready for another one.
“I thought even though we didn’t play a clean game early, guys battled back, and we were in position to win that game right there. Just didn’t do it.”
When it looked like the Mets might be turning a corner, having won four of their previous five games, they took a step back.
They will hope to avoid a second straight series loss to 63-92 Washington on Sunday in their final home game of the regular season.
Coupled with the Reds’ 6-3 win over the Cubs on Saturday, the Mets lead for the third and final wild-card spot shrank to a single game.
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For seven innings, it felt like a lost afternoon for the Mets.
The defense, in particular Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, let down rookie sensation Nolan McLean.
The lineup was punchless.
Then, Mark Vientos plated two runs with a two-out double in the eighth, and Soto pulled the Mets even in the ninth.
The game was there to be won as the Mets had a bases-loaded situation, but Jose Ferrer struck out Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte.
“He made pitches,” Mendoza said of Ferrer. “I think we had some really good at-bats. We had momentum there. We had the bases loaded.”
An inning later, the Mets had two on and nobody out.
Francisco Alvarez, however, grounded into a double play and Ronny Mauricio lined out.
Those shortcomings highlighted a frustrating day at the plate in which the Mets went 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
Mendoza stayed away from using Edwin Díaz for a second inning, despite him throwing just seven pitches in the 10th.
Díaz, Mendoza said, had pitched Thursday and warmed up Friday, and he wasn’t going to go any further.
Rogers couldn’t get it done, allowing Lile’s bomb to center field. Mullins couldn’t come close to tracking it down, and it caromed well away from him.
“He put a good swing on it, and I thought I got a decent jump,” Mullins said. “Once I realized that I wasn’t gonna have a play, I tried to stop myself to be able to read it off the wall. Just got up on me pretty quick.”
McLean wasn’t sharp, allowing four hits and walking two, but he still gave up just one earned run across five innings and struck out six.
The second inning was particularly ugly. The first two Nationals reached on singles on 1-2 counts, McLean leaving sweepers up in the zone.
There were two errors and a wild pitch that caromed past Alvarez off the backstop. The Nationals scored two runs thanks to the miscues.
It started when Francisco Lindor couldn’t hold onto a Dylan Crews ball to his left he initially fielded.
Then, Riley Adams singled to right field. It went past a charging Soto, rolling all the way to the wall for Soto’s first error of the season. Adams wound up on third.
Alonso followed the Soto error by throwing high to McLean covering first base on a weak grounder by Brady House.
McLean nearly kept it at a run by striking out Nasim Nuñez and James Wood.
But he uncorked a wild pitch that scored Adams. All that was missing in the frame was a laugh track.
“We’ve been inconsistent. We go through stretches where we make plays, we play clean,” Mendoza said. “Then we go through stretches where that happens.”