Mets still control own destiny if they can halt untimely funk in time

MILWAUKEE — The Mets are losing crucial games here, but at least they are picking up useful info.The most obvious knowledge they’ve gathered so far is this: If they are lucky enough to qualify for the playoffs — and yes, despite not winning once on this trip, they remain very much alive — it’s best to avoid the Brewers.Baseball’s spunky little team from arguably its smallest market (tied with Cincinnati) continues to torment the Mets.Even when the Brewers — already set as the host of a Wild Card Series — are playing for just fun and giggles, the Mets can’t touch them.Milwaukee handed the Mets their second defeat in two nights and third on an excursion where the lone highlight remains escaping Atlanta just before Hurricane Helene arrived — not that that’s a small thing.

Beyond that, there really hasn’t been much to see.Mets owner Steve Cohen, who attended the game here Friday and is planning to be back for Sunday’s finale, flew to New York for the 50th reunion of his Great Neck North High graduating class Saturday.He made the right call.The Mets gathered just two hits against a collection of little-known but well-armed Brewers hurlers in a 6-0 wipeout.

Yet somehow, the team from Queens still controls its destiny in the race that seems less impressive by the loss.The more they lose, the better things get, it seems.

Apparently, this is the new Mets math.Truthfully, they can thank the Diamondbacks for their undeserved good fortune.The Mets hold the all-important tiebreaker over Arizona, who are also seemingly on a defeat-a-day pace.“We just need to be better … Today our effort wasn’t good enough,” Pete Alonso said.

“Thankfully, we’ve got tomorrow, and we’ve got two more days in Atlanta.” (Hard as it is to believe, they could potentially clinch a playoff spot Sunday, and in that case wouldn’t even need to head south.)If the Mets don’t make it, they have no one to blame but themselves.The Brewers employed a bullpen game S...