Maybe the Mets were trying to lean into the symbolism.
They dug a significant hole in the early going.
They then turned to a relentless offense that swung them back into contention.
But on Sunday, the Mets were not able to do what they have done often through the first half of the season: complete the comeback.
The Mets reached the midpoint of the season falling short in one more come-from-behind bid with a 10-5, 11-inning loss to the Astros in front of 26,853 at Citi Field.
In Game 81 of the season, the Mets (40-41) snapped a streak of eight straight series without a series defeat.
In the rubber game, they trailed the Astros by four, began the comeback in the sixth inning, tied it in the seventh but lost the contest in extra innings.
Perhaps the storm that rolled through before the bottom of the ninth and prompted a 2-hour, 47-minute delay cooled off a red-hot club.
Each team scored once in the 10th — Houston on a Chas McCormick single off Adam Ottavino, the Mets on a double from Brandon Nimmo — before the Mets’ thin bullpen became evident in the 11th.
Matt Festa, a 31-year-old Brooklyn native making his club debut after a call-up earlier in the day, allowed three straight well-struck singles that helped the Astros create distance.
Houston’s fourth hit of the frame, a Trey Cabbage double that knocked in two more, essentially put the game away.
In the bottom of the inning, Tyrone Taylor, Luis Torrens and Jeff McNeil went down in order against Houston’s Luis Contreras, bringing the Mets to two games back of the Cardinals for an NL wild-card spot.
The Mets finished a 3-2 homestand on a down note before they head to Washington for a series that begins Monday.
Until the ending, the game mirrored a season in which the Mets lost their first five games and fell to 11 games under .500 this month before MLB’s best offense during June fueled a comeback.
“Interesting,” Mendoza said, to laughs, before the game in summing up the first half. “We’ve been through a lot. Ups and down, but that’s part of 162-plus. Understand there’s going to be harder times.”
The Mets then continued the same kind of radical shifts in play. Facing a string of Astros relievers on a bullpen day, the Mets were held hitless until a Nimmo single in the sixth inning.
They were down, 4-0, after five, Luis Severino far from his best but able to keep his club within striking distance.
The offense broke through in the sixth, when Nimmo’s single and Pete Alonso’s double sparked a threat.
With two outs, the revelation that has been Mark Vientos came through with a two-run double over third baseman Alex Bregman’s head to cut the lead in half.
The lead was gone the next inning.
Luis Torrens walked before Nimmo, behind 0-2 and with two outs, reversed a 97.8 mph Bryan Abreu fastball over the wall in left-center, the game-tying shot Nimmo’s 100th career home run.
Adrian Houser pitched two scoreless innings behind a serviceable Severino (seven innings, four runs allowed on eight hits and a walk) and received some help in the eighth, when Torrens gunned down Joey Loperfido attempting to steal second, Torrens’ first of two base-running victims.
But the storm then hit and soon after so did the Astros, which helped to halt the Mets’ momentum.
Or perhaps the momentum-killer was an evolving bullpen that had added Festa and lefty Tyler Jay before the game, optioning starter Tylor Megill and lefty Danny Young after the bullpen’s warts were on full display Saturday.
The thin unit again was exposed for not being reliable enough.
