Inside-the-park homer sinks Mets as late rally goes all for naught vs. Nationals

The impossible happened. 

The Mets rallied in the ninth inning. 

For the first time all season — and in their 66th such opportunity — they were able to come from behind in their final at-bat. 

Of course, this being such a maddening season, they still found a way to lose, 5-3 in 11 innings, to the playing-out-the-string Nationals. 

Daylen Lile’s two-run, inside-the-park homer off Tyler Rogers was the difference in the latest gut-punch of a loss for the Mets.

They had two golden opportunities to win it after Juan Soto pulled them even in the ninth.

But Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte both struck out with the bases loaded.

In the 10th, they had two on and nobody out.

Francisco Alvarez, however, grounded into a double play, and Ronny Mauricio lined out to left. 

It ruined the Mets rallying from three runs down in the final two innings and could cut their lead for the final NL wild-card spot to a single game if the Reds knock off the Cubs later on. 

The Mets put themselves in a bad position with rookie sensation Nolan McLean on the mound.

The defense let him down, and the bats went mostly limp. 

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Just when it looked like the Mets might be turning a corner, having won four of their previous five games, they took a big step back.

They will look to avoid a second straight series loss to Washington on Sunday in the regular season finale in Queens. 

McLean wasn’t sharp, allowing four hits and walking two, but he still gave up only one earned run across five innings and struck out six. 

The offense, which had averaged seven runs in the previous five games, was flat most of the day.

The Mets couldn’t take advantage of several quality scoring chances early, although they did score twice on Mark Vientos’ two-out double in the eighth.

They were 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position. 

The second inning was particularly ugly.

The first two Nationals reached on singles on 1-2 counts, McLean leaving sweepers up in the zone.

There were two errors and a wild pitch that caromed past Alvarez off the backstop.

The Nationals scored two runs thanks to the miscues. 

It started when Francisco Lindor couldn’t get to a Dylan Crews ball to his left he initially fielded.

Then, Riley Adams singled to right field. It went past a charging Soto, rolling all the way to the wall for Soto’s first error of the season.

Adams wound up on third.

Alonso followed the Soto error by throwing high to McLean covering first base on a weak grounder by Brady House. 

McLean nearly kept it at a run by striking out Nasim Nunez and James Wood.

However, he uncorked a wild pitch that scored Adams. All that was missing in the frame was a laugh track. 

The Mets threatened in the bottom half of the second, putting two runners on with one out.

But Brett Baty rolled over a 2-0 fastball, ending the promising inning.

History repeated itself an inning later, with Alonso and Nimmo failing to come through in an identical situation.