#Mets close homestand with thud in sloppy loss to Phillies

That’s a lot of trees sacrificed so the Mets can have bats serving such little purpose.

In a performance that has become too typical, the Mets closed their homestand with a thud Sunday, not awakening until late in a 4-2 loss to the Phillies at Citi Field.

Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso combined for five of the team’s seven hits, as the Mets were held to two runs or fewer for the ninth time in 13 games as MLB’s 30th-ranked team in scoring.

Over that stretch the Mets are 5-8, but have lost only one game in the NL East standings. The Mets lead the Nationals by four games.

“The way we have won games is our pitching is good and our defense is really good, not necessarily because our offense has been part of the winning formula,” manager Luis Rojas said. “But we have to trust that it’s going to come.”

Alonso cited the missing members of the lineup, Brandon Nimmo and J.D. Davis. In the last week the Mets returned Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto from the injured list.

“It’s tough to get going when you don’t have all your pieces in there for just about every day,” Alonso said. “I think the more we progress in the season, I think this team is ready to put up a bunch of runs consistently.”

After Zack Wheeler dominated for seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts, the Mets finally broke through against Jose Alvarado in the eighth. Alonso’s third hit of the game, an RBI single that followed Lindor’s second double of the afternoon, gave the Mets a run before Kevin Pillar homered in the ninth against Archie Bradley.

“Wheeler is one of the elite guys in the NL this year,” Alonso said of his former teammate, who saw his ERA drop to 2.20. “He had his ‘A’ stuff today. Good on him.”

Marcus Stroman, returning from left hip discomfort that forced him to leave early from in his previous start, went three innings and allowed four runs, two of which were unearned, on five hits and three walks. He departed after 74 pitches. Stroman is mourning the passing of his grandmother in recent days, but pitched Sunday because he wanted to put the team first, according to Rojas. The right-hander will take an absence from the Mets this week but is expected to pitch as scheduled in the Subway Series.

Two sparkling plays to begin the game helped Stroman — Conforto and Pillar made consecutive diving catches in the outfield — but sloppy plays later hurt the right-hander.

In the second inning, McNeil covering first dropped the throw on Wheeler’s sacrifice bunt, loading the bases. Odubel Herrera followed with a sacrifice fly that became an unearned run.

After Nick Maton stroked a two-run double in the third that put Stroman in a 3-0 hole, another flub hurt the Mets: Luis Guillorme threw away Ronald Torreyes’ grounder, allowing Maton to score the Phillies’ second unearned run of the game.

Corey Oswalt gave the Mets a second strong relief appearance, pitching four shutout innings in which he allowed four hits and struck out four. The right-hander allowed one earned run over 2 ¹/₃ innings on Wednesday.

The Mets had their opportunity to claw back into the game in the fifth, after Wheeler allowed a single to Billy McKinney leading off the inning and walked Pillar. But Guillorme was retired on a line drive to third base and Rojas opted to allow Oswalt to bat. Oswalt sacrificed the runners to second and third before McNeil was retired for the final out.

“You know how much we have used our bullpen, we want to save the guys,” Rojas said. “It’s unfair to take our length guy [Oswalt] out of the game at that point. It’s the fifth inning and Corey gave us two more innings. Games like this when your starter leaves early, you have to protect your bullpen. Especially with no days off on the horizon. ”