PHILADELPHIA — Summer arrived during this road trip, but right now the Mets could use plenty of spring.
After snapping a seven-game losing streak the previous night, manager Carlos Mendoza’s crew reverted to listless form in Sunday’s series rubber game against the Phillies.
Even usually reliable David Peterson was a mess in getting knocked out after four innings in the Mets’ 7-1 loss at Citizens Bank Park that completed their brutal trip.
In a fourth inning from hell, Peterson surrendered two long home runs and buried the Mets in a five-run hole, forcing his team into trying to play catch up against lefty Jesús Luzardo.
But the cavalry, which blasted seven solo homers Saturday, was nowhere to be found.
Francisco Lindor homered in the eighth for the Mets’ only run.
The Mets had won the previous 28 games in which Lindor had homered, one short of the MLB record.
The Mets went 1-5 against the Braves and Phillies on the trip.
Their reward is a return to Queens for a rematch against the Braves, who swept them last week.
In his worst start of the season, Peterson allowed five earned runs on six hits and three walks over four innings with four strikeouts.
The start was not only Peterson’s shortest, but his runs allowed were a season high.
It completed a turn through the rotation in which Mets starters pitched to a 6.55 ERA.
It’s also not the same rotation that carried the Mets for the first 2 ½ months of the season, as Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill sit on the injured list.
Peterson got jumped for five runs in the fourth, when he faced 10 batters, burying the Mets in a 5-0 hole.
Kyle Schwarber launched a homer to center leading off the inning and Otto Kemp’s RBI single after Nick Castellanos had doubled and J.T. Realmuto walked gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
Edmundo Sosa crushed a slider for a three-run homer.
It marked the first time Peterson surrendered multiple homers in a game since his first start of the season, on March 31 in Miami.
He had allowed only four this season before Sunday.
The Phillies extended the inning with Johan Rojas’ two-out walk and Trea Turner’s single before Peterson retired Schwarber to end the frame.
Luzardo muzzled the Mets, who had their best chance against him in the fourth when Juan Soto walked and Brandon Nimmo singled with two outs.
Luzardo escaped by retiring Luis Torrens.
Luzardo allowed only three hits over 6 ²/₃ scoreless innings and struck out seven with one walk.
Tyler Zuber entered for the seventh in his Mets debut and surrendered two runs on three hits.
