David Peterson’s implosion, cold bats force Mets to settle for split with Braves after rout

Everything was going so well for the Mets — apparently too well.

They were crushing the Braves. Kodai Senga was dealing.

Citi Field felt like one big party.

That was Friday night.

Then, came the top of the sixth inning of a lopsided game.

Senga, the staff ace making his first start of the season, suffered a regular season-ending, high-grade left calf strain while trying to get out of the way of an infield pop-up.

They won that game, but lost the next two in feeble fashion, having to settle for a disappointing split.

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The good vibes vanished quickly. Instead, the Braves left Queens with momentum after such a poor start to the weekend.

David Peterson’s fourth-inning implosion put the Mets in a hole and new reliever Ryne Stanek made a poor first impression.

The suddenly ice-cold offense remained comatose in a depressing 9-2 defeat, and had gone 20 innings without scoring a run before Pete Alonso’s two-run shot in the eighth.

“Not a good feeling right now losing that game,” Peterson said. “But I know that we’ll take what we need to from it and get ready for the Twins tomorrow. One thing that we’ve done a good job of is taking what we need to learn from wins and losses, and turning the page.”

In the four games against the Braves, the Mets (55-50) went 4-for-24 with runners in scoring position and 1-for-9 on Sunday.

Of their 13 runs scored in the series, 11 came via the home run. The Braves’ pitching staff, ranked third in all of baseball in ERA (3.48), shut them down.

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The Mets couldn’t even take advantage of starter Reynaldo Lopez leaving the game after the third inning due to right forearm stiffness.

“That’s a good pitching staff. Their starters are good, their bullpen is really good — it’s deep. It’s going to happen,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We created traffic today, especially in the first three innings against Lopez. We just couldn’t get that big hit.”

Peterson cruised through the first three innings, allowing just an Austin Riley single. But he started the fourth by walking Riley, and the outing fell apart from there.

Marcell Ozuna dropped in a soft single to right field and Matt Olson crushed a hanging slider 426 feet, giving the Braves a 3-0 lead.

Peterson, losing command of the strike zone, was fortunate to get out of the inning with just one additional run scoring. He needed 40 pitches to get through the frame.

“Walked Riley to start the inning, which is not ideal. Then Ozuna had the bloop hit and I didn’t execute one pitch to Olson,” said Peterson (5-1), who suffered his first loss of the season in his 10th start. “That’s kind of what it came down to.”

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The Mets, meanwhile, were blowing scoring chances. They wasted leadoff doubles in the second, third and fifth innings.

Their best chance came in the second, with two on and none out for the top of the batting order.

But the Mets came up empty. Over the first four frames, they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

They finally got a hit with a man in scoring position in the fifth, but Tyrone Taylor was thrown out at the plate on Ben Gamel’s single.

Any thoughts of a comeback ended in the seventh, when Stanek was lit up for a pair of home runs by Orlando Arcia and Riley.

The right-hander has now allowed runs in four consecutive outings, three with his former team, the Mariners. Jake Diekman tossed gasoline onto the fire, giving up a two-run shot to Ramon Laureano in the eighth.

The loudest cheers came in the bottom of the eighth, when new addition Jesse Winker came up to pinch hit. He promptly struck out, and heard a few jeers.

It was that kind of day — and weekend really, going back to Friday night — for the Mets.

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