PHILADELPHIA -- Not even Bryce Harper's moonshots could save the Phillies on Thursday night.

Harper smashed two towering home runs in the first two innings to help the Phillies take a three-run lead, but they had just one hit after the second, while Aaron Nola allowed five runs and a career-high five walks in 5 1/3 innings and the bullpen followed its familiar path by blowing the lead in the sixth and the game in the ninth. The 10-6 loss to the Mets dropped the Phillies to 24-25 and behind the Giants into the eighth seed in the National League postseason race.

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Even more troubling, the Phillies are only a half-game ahead of the Cardinals for that final spot with 11 games to play.

It is hard to believe.

“Well,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said, “there’s a lot of resiliency here. We get down 3-0 in the first inning and what happens? Bang. It’s 4-3. We get down 10-6 in the ninth inning and we got the bases loaded and got a chance. This team never gives up. I believe in them. I believe we’re going to find a way to get it done. Believe me, I know that we have to be creative in a lot of situations because we’ve got starters down. We’ve got position players down. But hey, it’s a chance for someone to step up and help us out.”

The Phillies miss J.T. Realmuto, Rhys Hoskins and Jay Bruce in the lineup. They are injured, although Bruce could rejoin the team Friday. But then Jean Segura left the game in the seventh inning after getting hit on the left triceps with a 97.9 mph fastball.

“I’d be kind of surprised, to be honest, if we have him tomorrow,” Girardi said.

The Phillies miss Jake Arrieta and Spencer Howard in the rotation, especially with doubleheaders Friday and Tuesday. They are injured, too. But then the bullpen continues to be the worst in baseball. It has a 7.17 ERA, which is the second-highest bullpen ERA in baseball history. Right-hander Brandon Workman allowed three runs in one-third of an inning in the ninth. He has a 6.94 ERA in 12 appearances since he joined the team.

“He was throwing the ball OK when he got here,” Girardi said. “I think it’s shocking to us that someone who’s had that much success can struggle.”

The Phillies’ organizational depth has been exposed over the past couple of weeks. In the past four days, for example, the Phillies promoted and started catcher Rafael Marchan, who never played above Class A Advanced, and outfielder Mickey Moniak, who never played above Double-A.

But the killer this week is that the Phillies lost Wednesday and Thursday, despite having their top two starters on the mound in Zack Wheeler and Nola.

“It stinks,” Girardi said.

Harper crushed a first-pitch fastball from Mets right-hander Seth Lugo in the first inning for a 433-foot home run to center field. Alec Bohm followed Harper with a home run to right and Didi Gregorius followed Bohm with another home run to right. It was the first time the Phillies hit three consecutive home runs in a game since April 23, 2017, when Cesar Hernandez, Aaron Altherr and Odúbel Herrera did it against the Braves.

Harper then smashed a 2-1 fastball in the second inning off the electronic billboard in front of the third deck in right field that Statcast projected at 445 feet. It is only the second time in Citizens Bank Park history that a player hit a home run off that sign. The other? Barry Bonds’ 713th career homer in May 2006.

It made Harper just the fourth Phillies player in history to hit a home run in both the first and second innings of a game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He joined Jimmy Rollins (April 12, 2007, vs. the Mets in New York), Gary Redus (July 7, 1986, vs. the Braves) and Freddy Leach (June 19, 1928, vs. Brooklyn).

It was not nearly enough.

“We believe we can turn it around for sure,” Nola said. “Nothing easy is coming right now. We’ve just got to stick our noses down and keep competing. That’s all we can do right now.”