It would have been inconceivable as May turned to June for the Mets to even consider reaching 50 wins by the All-Star break.
They ended up finishing just one victory short of that total after their five-game winning streak on this home stand was halted with Sunday’s 8-5 loss to the Rockies at Citi Field.
Starting pitcher Jose Quintana was tagged for four of the six home runs allowed by the Mets, including three by Michael Toglia and two by Ezequiel Tovar.
The Mets’ record stood at a dreadful 24-35 on June 2, but Carlos Mendoza’s resurgent team still finished with 25 wins over its final 36 games heading into the four-day break.
The Mets remain in the third wild-card position in the National League with a 49-46 overall mark when they reconvene for a three-game series against the Marlins beginning Friday in Miami.
Pete Alonso, the team’s lone All-Star representative and a participant again in Monday’s annual Home Run Derby, clubbed a two-run blast and Jose Iglesias rapped four hits for the Mets.
Quintana had posted a solid 2.82 ERA over his previous 10 starts, but he left trailing 5-3 with two outs in the sixth inning.
Quintana spotted the Rockies a 2-0 lead two batters into the game; the veteran lefty was clocked for a two-run homer into the second deck in left by Tovar on a first-pitch changeup.
Rockies starter German Marquez blanked the Mets through three, but Alonso followed an infield single by Francisco Alvarez with a two-run blast to left in the fourth for a 2-2 game.
It was Alonso’s team-high 19th of the season, but his first since July 2.
Francisco Lindor worked a bases-loaded walk later in the inning to give the Mets the lead, but Toglia tied it again with a solo shot to right against Quintana leading off the fifth.
The former All-Star was taken deep twice more in the sixth, a 430-foot shot to center by Brenton Doyle and a second solo shot to left by Toglia for a 5-3 Colorado lead.
Tovar added his second homer of the game, a two-run blast off Adrian Houser, in the seventh.
Tovar blasted his third of the game against Houser in the eighth to extend the Mets’ deficit to five.
Rockies reliever Nick Mears fanned Alvarez, Alonso and Mark Vientos with two runners on base to squelch one chance to close the gap in the bottom of the inning.
Jeff McNeil’s RBI double against lefty Jalen Beeks drew the Mets within 8-4 in the eighth.
A one-out walk to Lindor loaded the bases, but the Mets only plated one more run in the inning on Brandon Nimmo’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Alvarez’s bid for a game-tying three-run blast was caught on the warning track to end the threat.
Singles by Vientos and Iglesias got the tying run to the plate again in the ninth, but righty Victor Vodnik struck out Tyrone Taylor and pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez for the final outs.