At the most crucial moment, the Mets are simply giving it away

If you want to believe the fates are somehow conspiring against the Mets as their wild card berth slips away, Jacob Young’s two spectacular catches at the center field wall in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals, one that included kicking the ball skyward to keep it from hitting the ground, played into that narrative.

As Carlos Mendoza said in amazement, “I’ve never seen that before.”

But if you’ve been watching these Mets play some dreadful baseball in recent days, weeks, even months, from their bad defense to boneheaded baserunning to the bats going silent far too often, you know that’s the furthest thing from the truth.

It’s not fate. The Mets have played poorly for much of the last three months — 17 games under .500 since June 13. And now it appears they’re also collapsing under the weight of trying desperately to avoid the embarrassment of missing the postseason with their star-studded roster and their gazillion-dollar payroll.

In short, there’s really no other way to put it: They’re giving it away.

How else to explain losing two of three games to the lowly Nationals at such a crucial point in the season, and playing raggedy defense when their focus should be as heightened as possible.

How else to explain failing to muster any real offense against Jake Irvin, one of the worst starting pitchers in the majors for the last several weeks, as evidenced by his 9.36 ERA over his last seven starts. Or the inability to score against the Nationals’ bullpen, whose 5.60 ERA coming into Sunday ranked dead last in MLB.

How else to explain all the defensive and baserunning miscues lately, to the point where a week ago Mendoza admitted, “We’re not playing good fundamentally right now.”

All of it only happens to a team as talented as these Mets when they’re playing tight, squeezing the sawdust out of the bat, trying not to make mistakes rather than playing freely.

And now the prospect of a full-blown collapse is more real than ever, after the Cincinnati Reds won their fifth straight game on Sunday to pull even with the Mets for the third wild card spot — but not really even, since they own the tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same record.

So in truth the Mets are suddenly behind, to the point where even winning their final six games, three in Chicago against the Cubs, and three in Miami against the Marlins, wouldn’t get them in unless the Reds cooperate.

In the Mets’ clubhouse on Sunday, Brandon Nimmo was doing a group interview when the Reds’ score went final, and he was asked if he could believe the Mets were now out of playoff position.

“Yeah, I can definitely believe it,’’ he said. “It’s been happening right in front of our eyes.”

Yes, the Mets have been sliding for weeks, letting teams like the Reds, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the San Francisco Giants back into the race. And the closer those teams have gotten, the worse the Mets have been playing.

On Sunday, in fact, in what the Mets had to feel was a must-win game, they met the moment with a litany of mistakes early that contributed to a 3-0 deficit by the second inning.

There was Juan Soto getting picked off first base. There was a throwing error by Francisco Lindor that helped fuel the Nationals’ three-run rally. There was a fumble of a routine ground ball by Pete Alonso for another error.

There was also Sean Manaea giving up a two-run home run to a light-hitting backup shortstop named Nasim Nuñez on a flat fastball, which led reporters to ask him why, as Mendoza said, he again wasn’t able to elevate his fastball.

Said Manaea, after several seconds of thought: “I don’t know.”

Even with all of that, the Mets’ worst mistake in some ways, and one that epitomized their  play of late, was Cedric Mullins’ lack of awareness on the bases that proved costly.

It happened on a weird play in the fourth inning: with Luis Torrens on second base, Mullins’ fly ball down the left field line at first appeared to be caught by a diving Daylen Lile. But as he hit the ground, the ball came out of his glove, and according to Mendoza, third base umpire Jeremie Rehak made a safe sign, indicating the ball was in play.

With the ball in plain sight on the ground, and Lile writhing in pain, Torrens took no chances and went back to tag up, then ran all the way to score as the ball still stayed untouched on the ground. Mullins, meanwhile, said he saw no signal from the umpires (nor did first base coach Antoan Richardson), and because he saw Torrens tag up, “my assumption is that it was an out.”

So he lingered around first base, watching Torrens run. Meanwhile, Mendoza said, “We were all screaming from the dugout” to go to second. Mullins didn’t hear them, and only noticed when he finally started to go back to the dugout himself. At that point, umpires had called timeout, and though Mullins did go to second (he was tagged out, though Mendoza said they would have challenged), the play was ruled dead and Mullins was awarded first base.

Clearly Mullins should not have assumed, since he didn’t see a signal, and instead kept running. And it mattered when he was immediately doubled off first on Lindor’s line drive to Josh Bell. When Soto followed with a double to the right field corner, Mullins’ mistake loomed even larger.

Had the Mets’ offense come to life at some point, of course, the play would have been a footnote. Instead, it potentially had a major impact on the outcome. Another blunder that has become far too common for this ballclub.

And so now the Mets are up against it. In their quiet clubhouse the players insisted they still believe. But the tone of their comments shifted as the chasers now.

“We put ourselves in this position, we’ve got to find a way out of it,” said Lindor. “If we want to be where we want to be, we have to play better.”

“We can turn it on in an instant,” added Nimmo.

At this point, though, it’s hard to believe they can merely flip a switch. They’ve been a mediocre-to-bad team longer than they were a good one on this long and winding road of a season.

And most significantly, no matter what they do, they now need help.

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