At 70-70, the Sox are at .500 for the first time since June 14, when they were 35-35. They have lost five straight games for the first time this season and 11 of 14 games if you count the conclusion of a suspended game last week.

With 22 games remaining, it’s mathematically possible that the Sox could still be in contention for the third wild card, but the only realistic goal remaining seems to be to finish above .500 for the first time since 2021.

As manager Alex Cora said after the game, there’s no point in discussing the wild card race unless the Sox show they can play better than they have over the past two weeks.

“We’re a .500 team. We play .500 baseball. I don’t think that’s good enough,” Cora said.

Three of the team leaders, Chris Martin, Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong, discussed what will happen next after the game as they try to keep a young team together in a time of crisis.

“We know we can play better; we’ve done that for most of the season,” Wong said. “It’s obviously tough right now, but we have to come back and fix it.”

While the score doesn’t reflect that, the Sox came back into the game on Wednesday, scoring three runs in the third inning and cutting the lead to 4-3.

But potentially game-winning comebacks in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings were ended by double plays. Shortstop Francisco Lindor, who had a fantastic series, converted two of them and started the other.

In a game that was tied by one point, Cora turned to Kenley Jansen in the eighth inning to keep the game close and because he needed the work after four days off.

Jansen got four of the five batters he faced on base, and the last two were walked. It’s not unusual for closers to lose focus when a save isn’t on the line, but this wasn’t Jansen’s worst performance of the season.

Rich Hill came in and got two more walks to force two more runs. It was an embarrassing inning as the Mets scored four times on one hit and that was a single.

“Unacceptable,” Hill said. “There are no excuses for this.”

The Red Sox host the historically bad White Sox for three games this weekend, but don’t expect that to change the tone or end this miserable losing streak.

The teams split a four-game series in Chicago in June, and for the White Sox, Garrett Crochet is scheduled to start on Saturday.

“It really doesn’t matter who we play,” Wong said. “We still have to play better. It starts with us.”

The Sox played with determination after the first inning on Wednesday, managed some good at-bats and got back into the game.

“We talked about passing the ball around. Overall, much better than the last 10 days,” Cora said.

But it still wasn’t good enough. Like last September, the Sox are falling apart toward the end of the season.

Martin, Refsnyder and Wong are looking to pick up the pieces, as are a few other players. We’ll see how many others want to join them.

This is not the test the Red Sox wanted. But it is a test nonetheless.

Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @PeteAbe.