NEW YORK — As the Phillies built a comfortable division lead all summer and then struggled through more chaotic periods of baseball, there was one truism that stood the test of time. If their starter lasted seven innings, they would win. When that happened, they won 34 games in a row, the second-longest such streak in Major League Baseball history.

That streak was broken on Wednesday in Milwaukee. Four nights later, Zack Wheeler stood on the mound at Citi Field, throwing a baseball in his right hand as he waited for manager Rob Thomson to take him out of the game. It is now fall.

This stadium was packed on Sunday night. The air felt a little cooler. This whole road trip, a disappointing 2-5 week against two teams the Phillies could face in October, was an important reminder: The gaps are about to get a lot smaller.

It looks like this: Mets 2, Phillies 1 – a game decided by a Brandon Nimmo hit in the sixth inning. New York prevented the Phillies from trashing the visitors’ locker room to celebrate the club’s first division title in 13 years.

Brandon Nimmo shakes up Citi Field! 🍎

The @Mets Take the lead! #SundayNightBaseball pic.twitter.com/CpoaQt8p7c

— MLB (@MLB) 23 September 2024

The Phillies can win the National League East with a win Monday night at Citizens Bank Park over the Chicago Cubs. They hold a five-game lead with six games remaining.

“I mean, it’s disappointing,” Wheeler said. “But at the end of the day, we can go home and win the thing in front of our own fans. When we get back home, we can start playing a little better. You could say we’re trying to win the next couple of series and come into the playoffs hot. Turn the tide. It’s not the end of the world.”

It’s not, but every quiet night of offense against a good team reopens old wounds. The Phillies weren’t playing good baseball before the 2022 postseason. They still mowed down the National League. In late September of last year, they won seven games in a row, then lost three in a row. Still, they were one game away from winning another NL pennant.

They have six games against two mediocre teams – Chicago and Washington – to feel better. They remain in a strong position to secure a first-round bye; their lead over the Milwaukee Brewers is three games with a tiebreaker. They are one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and have the best record in the league, but that could come with strings attached: The top seeds could face the red-hot San Diego Padres (who have a firm grip on fourth place) provided they advance in a best-of-three Wild Card Series.

This much is clear: The NL is wide open. Every team in the postseason can make a case for why they’ll go to the World Series. No team is perfect. The Phillies are loaded with talent and experience. They like their chances.

“If you look at the way our starters are throwing the baseball right now, it’s pretty good,” Kyle Schwarber said. “I think we have one of the best bullpens in the league. Do we want to score more runs? Absolutely. And we know we’re capable of doing that. We’ve had some bad luck there. But we’ll find a way to keep going. Overall, I think if we keep putting up these (pitching) performances, we’ll win a lot of baseball games.”

He’s not wrong. Schwarber hit a ball 409 feet in the second inning, which is a home run in most ballparks. The Phillies managed four walks and stole five bases. But they had zero extra-base hits.

It’s an offense that’s either on a winning streak or not, an identity they’ve tried to manage. There needs to be better situational hitting. Thomson stressed the need to focus on the smaller details as October approaches.

Ultimately, these games meant more to the Mets than the Phillies, as evidenced by the way New York deployed its players; the Mets asked closer Edwin Díaz to get 10 outs over two days.

Edwin Díaz celebrates after scoring the tying run on third base for the final out. (Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)

The Mets pitchers, like the Brewers did earlier last week, have taken advantage of the aggressiveness of the Phillies hitters. They will chase.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Schwarber said. “And we’ve been through a lot of really good pitchers, obviously this year but also in past postseasons. We’ve played against really good teams. For us, it’s going to be about finding a way to get guys on base and then scoring those runs. It’s not always going to be a home run. A run is a run. That’s our focus for us. Try to find a way to get on base and then the guy behind that is going to try to find a way to get you in.”

That’s easier said than done. The Phillies suffered 12 strikeouts on Sunday night, the fourth time in seven games they’ve suffered at least 12 strikeouts.

“We’ll expand (the strike zone) sometimes,” Thomson said. “We just have to keep it in check.”

Wheeler has allowed two or fewer runs in 10 straight starts, the longest any other pitcher in the major leagues has done this season. That’s the longest such streak in Phillies history. He, like many of the pitchers the Phillies plan to use in October, is peaking at the right time. The Phillies are confident in their pitching and the pitching rules in October.

They need some runs to back that up. Soon the Phillies will have to take the whole thing off cruise control. They have a chance to do that when October starts.

“We’ll find a way,” Schwarber said. “We just have to make sure we learn from this and move on to the next series. Stay focused on the things we want to do – and carry those into the postseason.”

(Top photo of Zack Wheeler and Luisangel Acuña: John Munson / Associated Press)