Maybe the Mets aren’t good. It’s always easy to overreact to the highs and lows of any season when you’re following a team, especially a baseball team that plays 162 games each year. But the Mets have become experts at finding ways to lose, and right now, it’s hard to believe that they spent as much time in first place this year as they did—some of it with the then-best record in baseball.

Today in Milwaukee, things went swimmingly—no sarcasm here, not yet anyway—through the first three innings. The Mets scored twice in the top of the first and once more in each of the second, third, and fourth innings. Sean Manaea was cruising through his first three frames, but things started to go south in the bottom of the fourth. William Contreras hit a solo home run, and Joey Ortiz drove in a pair later in the inning to cut the Mets’ lead to 5-3.

The Mets softened the blow out that half-inning a bit by getting one run back quickly in the top of the sixth. Unfortunately, that was the final run of the game, and things only got worse for the team as a whole from there. Manaea went back out to start the fifth inning, gave up a leadoff single, and was pulled—having thrown 87 pitches—in favor of Reed Garrett.

Very shortly thereafter, Contreras got to Garrett in the form of a two-run home run that pulled Milwaukee within a run. Garrett didn’t encounter any further damage, and Brooks Raley and Tyler Rogers followed with a scoreless inning each. But Ortiz struck again with a game-tying single in the eighth against Ryan Helsley, whose ERA since joining the Mets is rather unsightly. And while Edwin Díaz got through the rest of that inning in relief of Helsley, he served up a walk-off solo home run to Isaac Collins in the bottom of the ninth.

The Mets have the day off tomorrow, but days off haven’t been much of a cure for this team lately. Then they host the Braves—an objectively bad team that has had the Mets’ number this year—for three games at Citi Field.

With the Phillies and Reds having won today, the Mets are 5.5 games back in the division—their first time being that far back after having held a 5.5-game lead over the Phillies at the end of play on June 12—and just a game-and-a-half ahead of the Reds for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. If they keep playing the way they’ve been playing lately, we won’t have to provide updates on the playoff race for much longer.

Big Mets winner: Juan Soto, +12.1% WPA
Big Mets loser: Ryan Helsley, -29.1% WPA
Mets pitchers: -55.2% WPA
Mets hitters: +5.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Andrew Vaughn grounds into a double play in the seventh, +25.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Isaac Collins hits a walk-off home run in the ninth, -36.6% WPA