NEW YORK — Ranger Suarez walked to the mound Wednesday night at Citi Field bearing a 7.79 ERA in his last four starts and a sizeable question mark as to just what he could give a team facing elimination. He nearly walked off that mound about five or six times in the first three innings. Yet somehow, through four walks, through five hits, through 97 pitches, through the teeth of a hot Mets lineup and more traffic than the Gowanus Expressway at morning rush, Suarez saw the fifth inning and didn’t yield until he’d retired 13 Mets with a zero still next to their name. Suarez did what the first three Phillies starting pitchers did in the National League Division Series: He gave his team a chance to win. Its failure to, capped by a 4-1 defeat and a 3-1 series loss, falls on many, many other culprits. Suarez would’ve been the prime worry entering a must-win Game 4. But the Phillies got what they needed out of the lefty, and yet still couldn’t extend the series. That failure was a damning indictment on … well, on just about everything else, from a fallible manager to an imploding bullpen to a lineup that went AWOL in key moments for the second straight postseason. It’s now five losses in the last six playoff games for the Phillies. They scored 15 total runs in those games and just eight in the five losses. The starting pitching has been championship caliber. Of the 23 runs allowed in the series, 17 came from the bullpen, just six from the starters in 21.1 innings. Zack Wheeler was outstanding in the opener with seven shutout innings. Cristopher Sanchez sauntered to the dugout in Game 2 with his only blemish a two-run home run. Aaron Nola was not so lucky in Game 3, leaving the bases loaded in the top of the sixth after five innings and two runs allowed, then watched relievers allow two inherited runners to be tacked onto his ledger. Suarez was shaky but ultimately found his way out of danger. He loaded the bases in the first inning, but summoned strikeouts of Jose Iglesias and JD Martinez. An infield single that was really an Alec Bohm error packed the sacks in the second, but Suarez got Brandon Nimmo to pound out to first. That was likely to be his last batter, with Pete Alonso looming. When Suarez got a reprieve and walked Alonso to lead off the third, the end seemed to beckon. But a double play induced from Martinez spared him again. “Just the way he was able to execute and get guys out when he needed it most, there was a ton of traffic out there, to be honest,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “After the first inning or two, I didn’t think he was going to make it out of three. I thought we’re going to go to the bullpen pretty quick, but he did such a good job of getting the big outs when we needed it most.” Even when Suarez allowed a leadoff double to Francisco Lindor in the fifth, then hung around to get Nimmo looking, the Mets let the Phillies off the hook, Jeff Hoffman entering to get Iglesias and Martinez. But the luck had to run out eventually, since the Phillies earned so little of it along the way. Rob Thomson pushed every button wrong in the bullpen. After keeping Nola in too long in Game 3, he did the same with Hoffman, around a lengthy top of the sixth. The up-down had an effect, Hoffman all over the place. A hit batsmen with two strikes, two wild pitches, and a diminishing arsenal of reliable pitches, he was lucky to leave having gotten Francisco Alvarez to tap into a fielder’s choice. In came Carlos Estevez, who for reasons that boggle the mind threw 26 pitches in Game 3 down four runs, to allow Francisco Lindor’s grand slam. “I tried to strike something out,” Estevez said. “Unfortunately, didn’t happen that way. And I’m OK because I knew I gave my best, but in the same time, it the sucks that we lost.” The bats going missing again is harder to explain. Through lineup adjustments, the Phillies produced only three multi-run innings in the entire series. They allowed Sean Manaea to work into the eighth in Game 3 and with their backs against the wall scratched out only an unearned run Wednesday. “Offense comes and goes,” Thomson said. “It’s hard to explain really.” “You give credit to them, because they did a great job, but also it felt like it was just hard to get something going,” Kyle Schwarber said. “That was the battle, trying to get that inning going. We got it in Game 2, and it felt like we couldn’t get that big inning going. I think that’s just the unsettling thing.” Easier to explain is that the Phillies have let another postseason chance to begging. The core is a year older and a year further along on their contracts. They’ve increased their win totals toward a first NL East each of the last three seasons while backsliding in playoff penetration. And they face an offseason with not even more questions than answers but more obstinance that they are on the right path. “It’s got to be better,” Bryce Harper said. “We’ve got to finish the job. Obviously we have a great group of guys in here, got a really good core. But just weren’t able to get the job done.” Contact Matthew De George at [email protected].