The Mets lost 5-4 to the Marlins Tuesday night, marking their third loss in a row and eighth time in the last 10 games they’ve scored four runs or less. Taijuan Walker looked to get back on track on the mound Tuesday night after three straight rough outings post-All-Star break.

He gave up a couple more home runs–this time just solo shots–in the second and third innings, then following Isan Diaz‘s homer in the third, Walker worked the bases loaded with two outs. Bryan De La Cruz knocked in his first two career RBI next, though, and Walker couldn’t get out of the jam as the Marlins extended their lead to 4-0. (De La Cruz made a couple nice plays in right field, too, that cost the Mets at least a run.)

Walker was able to settle down after that, though, retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced. He lasted 5.2 innings, and, much like Tylor Megill on Monday, was able to keep the Mets within reach when he wasn’t pitching his best.

There’s been talk about wanting to give Taijuan Walker a break after his workload this year, but it’s too late for that. The Mets knew of the lack of pitching depth before the trade deadline and didn’t do much to address it. Now they need Walker to hold within the rotation while Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard work their way back. Once they return, then you can talk about a six-man rotation or moving Walker to a less inning-eating role. That’s not happening until September, though, so Walker is going to have to figure it out in games.

Walker’s velocity hasn’t really dropped over his last four starts, but his swing-and-miss rates across all pitches have been dropped over the last month or two, down below 20 percent. That improved Tuesday night when Walker had a 32 percent swing-and-miss rate.

The Mets were able to draw the game to back within a run on two Dominic Smith sacrifice flies and a J.D. Davis RBI double.

Then Seth Lugo came in to eat two innings in relief and keep the game close, but a bloop from Lewis Brinson and a Jorge Alfaro hit that kept sailing to the right center field gap notched the Marlins an insurance run.

That run came in handy as the Mets, down to their last strike, brought it to 5-4 on a James McCann double. Brandon Drury, the hottest hitter on the team, grounded out while pinch hitting next, though, and the team lost its sixth game out of its last seven. They’re now just 1.5 games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East. It’s their smallest lead in the division in over two months.

The offense as a whole combined for just five hits against Marlins pitching, which included Nick Neidert, Anthony Bender, David Hess, Bleier and Dylan Floro. They were chasing a ton of pitches outside the zone against Neidert, and though they ended up with four walks against him, they could’ve easily had two or three more.

Frustrations about the Mets’ own performance reached a head during the game.

Luis Rojas was thrown out of the game in the seventh inning after arguing balls and strikes. Multiple guys–Javier Báez and James McCann included–swung at 3-0 pitches and immediately regretted it with outward grunts and expletives. Then Báez, the newest member of the team but certainly hip to the Mets’ recent struggles, was upset with himself in the eighth inning and started chirping at reliever Richard Bleier, who got the shortstop to pop out. (It was clearly a bit of confusion, but one that wouldn’t end up like it did if the Mets were winning by a couple runs rather than down by one.)

The Mets also had a handful of batters (Smith, Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto) fly out to the warning track tonight, too, and, as Jolly Olive pointed out, the Mets at one point had eight batted balls travel over 335 feet Tuesday. None of them went for homers. The batters’ faces got more scrunched and eyes rolled further back with each ball that didn’t go over the wall.

To top it off, when the team was down 4-1 if the fifth inning, Mets owner Steve Cohen tweeted he was briefly watching the game and that the team needed to “get our act together soon.” With regards to in-game tweeting, Cohen has been largely optimistic. That tone changed Tuesday, as it generally has with most Mets fan the last couple weeks.

Nothing like a little urgency from the top to take off the pressure.

If there’s a bright side right now, the Mets haven’t lost more than three games in a row all season, and they’ll try to make sure that holds true Wednesday with a matchup between Carlos Carrasco (0-0, 2.25 ERA) and righty Zach Thompson (2-4, 2.33 ERA).

It’ll be Carrasco’s second start as a Met following his debut Friday when he gave up one run–a leadoff homer by Jonathan India–in four innings. He threw 58 pitches in his first start, so he’ll likely be able to get to 70-ish on Wednesday (or five or so innings). He’ll be pitching in an air conditioned dome in Miami, so fatigue may not be a huge factor.

As for the Marlins starter, Thompson has allowed 10 earned runs in his first 38.2 big-league innings. He throws a range of pitches (cutter, fastball, curveball, changeup) and has been most effective with his change, which he throws 11 percent of the time. He has a nearly 50 percent whiff rate on it and just a .053 wOBA.

The game starts at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.