Worrying signs follow Mets into six-game road challenge to save playoff hopes

After being in playoff position every day this season since April 5, the Mets woke up Monday on the outside looking in, having been passed by the Reds with six games to play.

As they head out on their final six-game road trip starting Tuesday in Chicago against the Cubs, followed by a trip to Miami to close out the regular season, there are countless worrying signs.

They’ve been among the worst teams in the sport for more than three months, they just dropped a series to the last-place Nationals, and they lost 11 of their past 15, all while knowing that their playoff prospects were slipping away.

Now they have to face a Cubs team that’s already clinched a postseason berth and a Marlins team that has won six in a row and 10 of 11.

On top of that, while the Mets were one of the best teams in the majors at home, they’ve struggled on the road (31-44) and finished their most recent trip with six straight losses.

“There’s work in front of us,” Pete Alonso said following their latest defeat by Washington on Sunday. “We’ve got to go do it and go leave it all out there the last six games.”

They haven’t done that lately, or much at all since the first two-plus months of the season.

Since June 13, the Mets are 35-52, the 27th-best record in the majors, just ahead of the Nationals at 34-54.

That horrendous stretch immediately followed their 45-24 start, which was the best in the majors.

Still, after all the roadblocks they faced — mostly of their own creation — the Mets were in solid position as recently as Sept. 5.

At that time, they were tied with San Diego for the second wild-card spot in the National League, four games clear of the Giants and with the Reds six games back and a game under .500 after the Mets took the first game of a series in Cincinnati.

Then came two losses to close out the series with the Reds, losing all four games of a series in Philadelphia and two more losses to Texas at Citi Field.

Even after a stretch of winning four out of five against Texas, San Diego and Washington, the Mets are out of a playoff spot due to consecutive home losses to the last-place Nationals.

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“We’ve just got to win,” Alonso said. “It’s that simple. Winning solves everything at this point. We’ve just got to do it.”

It starts Tuesday at Wrigley Field with David Peterson on the mound, likely followed by rookies Jonah Tong and Nolan McLean in Chicago, then Brandon Sproat in Miami.

“We can turn it on in an instant,” Brandon Nimmo said Sunday. “We’re gonna get good baseball [against the Cubs]. We should enjoy it because not everybody gets to be in this position. Try to look at it a little more positively, as we’re playing for the playoffs rather than we just lost a game Sunday.”

As last year’s unlikely run to the NLCS, which followed another frenzied finish to the regular season, and the success of the early part of this season fade into memories, the Mets have less than a week remaining to try to repeat their October success and avoid one of the worst collapses in baseball history.

“It’s do or die at this point,” Sean Manaea said. “So we’ve got to figure it out. If anyone can do it, it’s us.”