Carlos Mendoza not concerned over Mets’ dwindling NL Wild Card lead, but says they ‘have to fight’

Things are getting a little tense for the Mets. 

Outside of their young arms, their starting pitching continues to struggle.  

Tuesday, it was Sean Manaea’s turn; he allowed the Phillies to strike for four runs over the first two innings before settling into a nice groove, but it was enough to raise his ERA to 7.71 since the beginning of August. 

The recently red-hot offense has once again gone ice cold, as well.  

Philadelphia lefty Ranger Suárez struck out nine of the first 12 batters he faced and held the Mets without a hit over the first five innings on Tuesday, before allowing a leadoff single to Brandon Nimmo.

Suárez finished the night with a career-high 12 punchouts in six scoreless frames.

New York was able to show some sign of life against the Phillies’ bullpen, but a Mark Vientos error and a big ninth inning sunk them, as they suffered their second straight loss to the first place division rival. 

The Mets are now 3-5 on their current road trip with two games left, and like that, their hold on a playoff spot is starting to rapidly slip away. 

Any hope of the NL East title went out the window with Monday's loss to the Phillies, and by the end of Tuesday night, their lead for the third NL Wild Card spot could be down to as many as 2.0 games.

They do luckily hold the tiebreaker over the next closest team, the surging Giants, but in the midst of a four-game losing streak with just 17 to play, is Carlos Mendoza growing worried? 

“We’re good,” the skipper said. “But we gotta play better and we’ve got to fight. We’re in the middle of it, there’s no time to feel sorry, we've got to fight — what’s in the past is in the past and we’ve got to take it one day at a time.

“We continue to trust and believe in those guys. There’s a lot of experience, a lot of talent and good players in that room — we’ve been through adversity before as a group, we’ve got to find a way and we will.”

Their next opportunity to get things right comes against another tough Phillies left-hander in Cristopher Sanchez on Wednesday night.