Mets waste solid Kodai Senga start in loss to Braves

At long last, the Mets received a solid start. The offense gave the supposed lockdown bullpen a lead.

It didn’t matter. Whatever can go wrong for this team will go wrong.

Kodai Senga and Francisco Lindor did their jobs.

Ryan Helsley, one of the big arms the Mets acquired at the trade deadline, did not.

He was torched for two runs in the eighth inning of yet another brutal Mets loss to the Braves, a 4-3 setback that makes it 13 losses in 15 games for Carlos Mendoza’s beaten-down team.

Helsley was booed off the mound after allowing run-scoring doubles to Michael Harris and Ozzie Albies.

The Mets have dropped five consecutive series since a seven-game winning streak that feels like it came months ago, and their lead over the Reds for the final NL wild-card spot is just ¹/₂ game.

Senga looked more like himself in delivering a strong outing, allowing two earned runs over 5 ²/₃ innings.

It remarkably was the longest by a Mets starter in eight days. Lindor had three hits and keyed a two-run sixth inning that gave the Mets the lead.

On the same night he was honored as the Mets home run king, Pete Alonso drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out, run-scoring single.

It was set up for the Mets finally to win a series for the first time since sweeping the Giants July 25-27.

Helsley, scored upon in four of six outings as a Met, got himself into trouble by walking Marcell Ozuna.

He hung a slider to Harris, who laced it into the gap in left-center field to tie it.

Albies scored Young with a double off the wall in right.

Lindor reached in the bottom half of the inning with an infield single but was stranded.

The Mets went down in order in the home ninth, forcing closer Raisel Iglesias to throw just seven pitches.

While he failed to go six innings, Senga kept the Mets in the game, striking out seven and allowing five hits and two earned runs while throwing 93 pitches.

The problem was the Mets offense was getting dominated by Bryce Elder, who entered with a 6.12 ERA and 15 earned runs allowed in his previous 15 ¹/₃ innings.

Over the first five innings, all the Mets had to show for their night was a Lindor home run.

In the sixth, they finally got going, starting with a one-out single by Lindor.

He stole second and went to third on catcher Drake Baldwin’s throwing error.

Brandon Nimmo drove him in with a sacrifice fly, and Alonso plated Juan Soto with a two-out single.

Citi Field was alive. It, of course, didn’t last. Nothing good does with the Mets these days.