It was as if that violent swing from Juan Soto, which rocketed a no-doubter into the second deck in right, was aimed directly at the Mets’ stomach.
Such was the pain from this gut punch that left the Mets spiraling and perhaps out of the playoff picture.
After seven excellent and scoreless innings on defense and on the mound, the Mets caved in the eighth and ninth in a crushing — and another — 3-2 heartbreaker to the Rangers in front of 41,752 at Citi Field who began the Saturday cheering for the old timers and ended the night booing what is left of the 2025 Mets.
Carlos Mendoza’s group (76-73) has lost eight straight — none more devastating than No. 8 — and could be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, pending the result of the late Giants game.
On the backs of Francisco Lindor’s aggressive legs (which scored one run in the fifth) and Juan Soto’s 40th blast of the season (a monstrous shot in the seventh), plus excellence from Brandon Sproat, the Mets entered the eighth ahead 2-0.
But after seven well-played innings, the Mets unraveled.
First a miscue: With Tyler Rogers on the mound, Josh Smith swung at a 1-2 pitch and made contact with Francisco Alvarez’s glove for a catcher’s interference. Wyatt Langford then doubled down the third base line to put the tying run on second.
After a sacrifice fly and strikeout, Edwin Díaz entered needing to record one out to escape — but it was the wild version of Díaz. After a wild pitch, he walked Josh Jung. Rowdy Tellez then roped a ground-rule double down the right field line to tie the game at 2-2.
After a scoreless bottom of the eighth, Díaz returned for the ninth and allowed a pair of singles. The second, a gapper to right-center from Langford, scored the go-ahead run to complete the dagger of a comeback.
The Mets had a chance in the bottom of the ninth, Soto poking a one-out single into center and pinch-hitter Ronny Mauricio roping a two-out single to right to bring Soto 90 feet away from home. But Brandon Nimmo struck out to clinch yet another series loss.
Actually, the Mets had plenty of chances on an afternoon they left 12 on base and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, no failure more frustrating to the fans than Cedric Mullins’ pinch-hit strikeout with two outs and the scored tied in the eighth inning.
But there were plenty of missed opportunities that preceded the at-bat from the struggling deadline addition. They loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning only for Starling Marte to stare at a perfectly placed Strike 3. In the fourth, Marte reached third with two outs before Jose Siri was punched out on a pitch that appeared several inches above the strike zone.
They put runners on first and second with no out in the sixth, but Brett Baty was picked off second when he tried to scramble back and leapt to the base, hitting the closing glove of Smith on the way.
In his Citi Field debut and second career start, Sproat was excellent for six scoreless innings in which he scattered six hits, walked none and struck out three.
Relying on heat and an assortment of breaking pitches — notably a sweeper that drew four whiffs — Sproat cruised during an outing in which he received plenty of help behind him.
Sproat encountered two-on trouble in the third and induced a ground ball up the middle from Langford. Sproat maneuvered out of the way of the ball and wound up on his chest on the mound, where he raised his right hand in triumph because Jeff McNeil grabbed the ball and began a double play.
His next inning ended because Mark Vientos made a remarkable diving stab to his left and rose to throw out Jung.
Sproat let up a one-out double to Jonah Heim in the fifth, but two groundouts helped him survive unscathed.
Two more reached during a sixth inning that featured plenty of hard contact, but Sproat escaped when he got Jung to ground out to Lindor, leaving the game after just 70 pitches.
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