Mets hammered by Phillies as NL East hopes continue to dwindle with fourth straight loss

PHILADELPHIA — Sean Manaea’s troubles surfaced at a different pocket of the game this time around. 

But the end result was the same: a middling effort that a suddenly punchless Mets lineup and a bullpen that added some embarrassment could not overcome. 

A subpar start, subpar bats and the dregs of the Mets relief corps conspired to drop a fourth straight game, 9-3 to the Phillies, as the division race has unofficially ended and the wild-card race is unwittingly heating up. The Mets (76-69) fell a bit closer into the unthinkable, now just two games clear of the Giants for the final wild card. 

Manaea was knocked around in the early innings instead of the middle innings that had plagued him, digging a four-run deficit by the end of the second. 

A four-run hole is more like a canyon for a lineup that, mostly thanks to number-inflating garbage time, has totaled 16 hits in three games and scored 15 runs in the past six games. 

There is a growing possibility that an indisputably talented and wildly expensive Mets club could miss the postseason altogether.