PHILADELPHIA — The Mets have reached the stage of the season they never hoped to see: one eye on their own game and one eye on the out-of-town scoreboard.

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With their division hopes finished, the Mets can transition into ensuring they wrap up the third and final NL wild card, a race that has become more heated than they intended.

Four straight losses entering Wednesday’s game at Citizens Bank Park brought Carlos Mendoza’s group just two games ahead of the Drew Gilbert-José Buttó-Wilmer Flores Giants and three games ahead of a Reds club that took a series from the Mets last weekend.

The prolonged stretch of poor

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