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Jonah Tong could not escape an unrelenting tailspin. 

Can the Mets? 

A season that has been spiraling might have reached its roughest moment Friday, when Tong went from a fan favorite to hearing boos in 19 minutes that tanked a game and added a bit more weight to a Mets campaign that is tanking. 

The Mets — who were baseball’s best team in mid-June and as recently as Sept. 2 held a five-game wild-card lead — are imploding, their seventh consecutive loss arguably the ugliest of the stretch yet. 

Tong did not survive the first inning. Jeff McNeil was tossed in the fourth. What might have been a night remembered for welcoming back Jacob deGrom could be remembered for 41,040 fans in Queens beginning to say goodbye to the 2025 Mets. 

The season’s final homestand began with an 8-3, series-opening dud to the Rangers that was filled with the frustration of a team that suddenly — or maybe not so suddenly, the Mets now 31-48 since June 13 — cannot do anything right. 

As their own play finished, the Mets (76-72) held a one-game lead in the wild-card chase and were waiting to see the results of late Giants and Reds games. 

Scoreboard-watching would not be necessary if the club folds over its final 14 games like it has over its past seven. 

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As has become the habit when virtually anyone other than Nolan McLean (and perhaps Brandon Sproat) is pitching, the game was decided quickly — though this might have been the quickest. 

Tong released his first pitch at 7:11 p.m., when a fan base that has quickly fallen in love with the 22-year-old, smiling ball of energy loudly cheered every strike. 

There were not enough of those. By 7:30 p.m., manager Carlos Mendoza made the dreaded walk to the mound to pull Tong, who heard plenty of dissatisfaction and some light boos on the way to the dugout. 

The righty’s third career start was a nightmare in which he allowed six runs, recorded two outs and threw 40 pitches before Huascar Brazobán had to be summoned. 

Tong, who had encountered location issues in the minors but always fought his way out, could not navigate around a frame that would not end against a team determined to force him to throw strikes. Of Tong’s first 19 pitches, the Rangers swung once, which resulted in two walks and a strikeout. 

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Jake Burger’s fly out moved Tong one out away from an escape that he could not pull off, the next five batters reaching safely. 

The damage: a Josh Jung RBI single; Alejandro Osuna RBI single; Jonah Heim walk; Cody Freeman two-run single; Michael Helman two-run double that was dumped down the left field line. 

One of the most promising prospects in the Mets’ organization, who barely touched Triple-A Syracuse because his stuff and results demanded a promotion, timed what has to be the worst start of his life for a mid-September platform with the Mets desperate for every game. 

The prospects for the Mets’ season, meanwhile, are fading just as quickly, with frustrations beginning to bleed onto the field. 

There was Brazoban covering first base too late on a ground ball that Pete Alonso fielded and waited. Brazobán, knowing he now was losing the footrace, did not believe a throw was coming. Alonso tried anyway, the ball sailing nearly into Brazobán and actually into the Mets dugout for an error that finished with a Brazobán glare. 

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There was McNeil erupting after a called strike three and earning an ejection in the bottom of the fourth. After fighting out of an 0-2 hole and forcing a full count, McNeil believed a fastball at his knees to be ball four. He flipped his bat away and took a leap toward first base, and then let out a yell as he learned he had been punched out. From a distance he said something to home-plate umpire Scott Barry, who immediately tossed the Mets second baseman. 

The chaos likely felt familiar to deGrom, who pitched seven innings of three-run ball in his return to Queens.