That’s what you call a gut punch.
The only question now is whether yesterday’s latest ghastly meltdown by the Mets’ bullpen in a 7-4 loss to the Braves damaged any internal organs.
A five-run nightmare in the ninth inning certainly didn’t help the Mets’ postseason chances or shoo away any of those lingering ghosts from last September’s historic collapse.
Once the carnage from yet another bullpen disaster was finally tallied and the Phillies had swept a doubleheader from the Brewers, the Mets’ lead in the NL East was down to one game.
With 14 games to play, is history unthinkably repeating itself?
“It’s going to be a tough two weeks for us,” said Oliver Perez, yesterday’s starter who saw seven strong innings of work go up in smoke in the hideous ninth.
It’s going to be tough finishing stretch for the Mets because their makeshift bullpen can’t stop giving away leads. Wrap your mind around this: Yesterday’s blown save was the Mets’ 27th of the season and third in their previous four games.
Luis Ayala, the closer by default with Billy Wagner’s Mets career probably over, was the goat this time. Ayala allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the ninth, then served up a towering homer to right by pinch-hitter Greg Norton as the Shea Stadium crowd sat slack-jawed.
Their disbelief quickly transformed into deafening boos as Manuel practically sprinted to the mound to yank Ayala, who had been reliable before yesterday while converting seven of his first eight save chances.
Pedro Feliciano then made the ninth even more of a farce by giving up two more runs on two hits and two walks before Brian Stokes finally stopped the bleeding.
“I felt like I had good stuff,” Ayala said. “I just have to keep going and try to win as many games as I can. It was a bad day for me.”
Manuel tried to divert the attention from his pigpen of a relief corps by pointing the blame at an offense that didn’t score another run after taking a 4-2 lead in the fourth.
David Wright had a monster day with two homers highlighting a 4-for-5 performance, but – stop us if you’ve heard this before – the Mets could do nothing against five Atlanta relievers after knocking out rookie starter Jorge Campillo.
Manuel’s team left a combined seven runners on base in the final three innings, including the bases loaded in the seventh.
“We’ve got to find a way to add on runs,” Manuel said. “Those runs are becoming critical due to the problems we’re having in our [bullpen]. We’re not getting that job done.”
Perez was the latest starter to pay the price for the bullpen’s ineptitude. The lefty picked up the fifth no-decision in his past six starts despite allowing just two runs and striking out eight in seven innings.
The Mets’ clubhouse hardly was the picture of panic afterward, however, in large part because they are so used to bouncing back from horrific losses.
“We’ve had some tough losses this year – there’s no doubt about that,” Wright said. “These last two losses to the Braves are two of the tougher losses, but it seems like the tougher the loss, the better we play the next day.”
On the other hand, one has to wonder how many more debilitating defeats before doubts fueled by last September start creeping in.
bhubbuch@nypost.com