Mets’ struggling stars can’t let season spiral into a potential Francisco Lindor what-if

PHILADELPHIA — Luisangel Acuna jogged out to shortstop for the bottom of the second inning Sunday, sounding whatever alarm bells hadn’t already rung a day earlier when Francisco Lindor missed his first game of the season.

Lindor had willed himself into the starting lineup, but it was clear from his single to left field leading off the game, during which he was slow running to first base, that his lower back was still hurting. Lindor’s throw to first base on Trea Turner’s grounder in the bottom of the first was high, another sign that something was amiss.

Just in case any clarification was needed after Lindor exited, a Mets official announced that the shortstop had departed with back discomfort. Lindor later said he will receive an MRI exam on Monday, before the Mets begin a new homestand that features the Nationals and Phillies, the latter of which won 2-1 in the rubber game of this series at Citizens Bank Park on J.T. Realmuto’s walk-off single in the ninth against Edwin Diaz.

So now it’s back to wondering when the Mets’ MVP candidate shortstop might return. Pity the Mets if you must as they attempt to secure a National League wild card with their best player’s status in question, but this is no time for crying.

Either Lindor can play or he can’t, and the Mets will have to adjust accordingly.

“There’s a delicate balance where guys play banged up all the time,” Pete Alonso said. “But there is a difference between playing hurt and playing injured. If you play hurt you can grind through some stuff and still be able to perform admirably at times. If you are playing injured, that’s not good. That’s not sustainable.”

Lindor sure looks injured, but maybe the MRI will tell a different story that allows the shortstop to just rest for a few days before resuming. If there is a stretch of the schedule that maybe the Mets won’t miss him too much, it’s these next three games against the Nationals. But then it gets real again for the Mets.

You know who isn’t feeling badly for the Mets?

The Braves.

It’s those Braves — minus Ronald Acuna Jr., Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies among others — that began the day tied with the Mets for the NL’s third wild card. It’s those Braves who still have three games remaining against the Mets in Atlanta next week that could very well decide which of the two teams will play October baseball.

The season is going to continue for the Mets regardless of Lindor’s status. But it’s going to take better than what we saw from the team over the last two days for a champagne celebration to occur by the end of the regular season.

Lindor isn’t the whole team, and yet it seems that way when players such as Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and J.D. Martinez, in particular, aren’t producing. On Sunday that group combined for three singles, with Tyrone Taylor’s home run in the eighth inning accounting for the only Mets run.

“When [Lindor] is not in the lineup you see it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But then you still have got a good lineup, we have got a lot of good players. They are going to step up, we have done it the whole year — offensively, defensively, pitching-wise — and I am pretty sure that is going to be the case here if he’s not in the lineup.”

Martinez hit two balls that nearly left the park — after Cal Stevenson reached over the center-field fence a day earlier to rob him of a homer — but isn’t getting results. It’s been a rough 30 games or so for the veteran DH, who is hitting .190 over that stretch.

Nimmo hit a three-run homer on Friday, but any hope he’s been jump-started might be premature. Alonso homered against a position player, Kody Clemens, during a runaway on Friday, but otherwise was invisible during the series.

It’s one thing trying to win without Lindor with your best other players performing at a respectable level. It’s quite another when there is nobody to pick up the slack.

The Mets will root hard for a favorable MRI on Lindor’s back, but either way, there are 13 games to be played and a postseason berth hanging in the balance.

If inspiration is needed, look to the enemy Braves.