NEW YORK -- Whether the Phillies' year ends in October, or in the days prior, at some point this winter they'll slice and dice their recent slide in reflection, take a sort of inventory to see exactly where their upstart season left room for improvement. And when they do, they'll certainly focus on the last month, over which the Phillies watched a one-game division lead morph into a deficit they may not be able to recover from.
But even at this point, with 20 games left to go, the Phillies can narrow their self-analysis somewhat. Focus it on the Mets, whom they've now lost to 10 times in 16 tries. Focus it on little bits of fortune wasted, like the gift the world conspired to hand them prior to Sunday's 6-4 defeat in Flushing.
To a man, the Phillies arrived at Citi Field staring down the barrel of Jacob deGrom, whose Cy Young credentials cannot be contested. But he never rumbled out of the dugout even for a pitch; the Mets scratched deGrom after rain delayed the start of the game and threatened the rest of the afternoon. In a matter of minutes, the scoreboard shifted to display Corey Oswalt's 6.66 ERA in place of deGrom's 1.68 mark.
"As a competitor, you like that -- it's like facing [Max] Scherzer, it's like facing [Clayton] Kershaw," outfielder Rhys Hoskins said. "But in a big game, we obviously liked our chances not having to face him."
The ace then watched from the dugout as the Phillies parlayed their twist of fate only slightly: two runs on Hoskins' first-inning homer off Oswalt, yet little else against the parade of mostly rookie relievers who followed him in soggy -- but uninterrupted -- conditions the rest of the way. Vince Velasquez, who picked up the loss, clung to the early lead before giving up a leadoff double to Dominic Smith and hitting Amed Rosario with an 0-2 pitch in the fifth, then allowing Jeff McNeil 's game-tying single a batter later. Michael Conforto followed with a three-run homer that see-sawed the score.

The first-pitch, opposite-field blast by Conforto -- just the second Velasquez has allowed since his June 25 start -- ensured the Phillies would not capture a series win for the 10th consecutive time. They have not won a series since Aug. 5, "an unbelievable phase," as Velasquez called it, but one he has been far from immune from. The last time the right-hander pitched into the sixth inning was Aug. 3, two days before they climbed to a season-best 15 games over .500. 
"With us being the young team that we are, nobody expected us to go this far," Velasquez said. "But we're capable of doing a lot more and doing better."
Said Hoskins: "We lost another series, and that's a missed opportunity. Not because it wasn't against deGrom, just because it was another series that seemed to slip away."
The Braves defeated the D-backs later on Sunday, increasing their lead over the Phillies to 4 1/2 games in the National League East.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Hoskins hits a milestone: Hoskins came to Queens ice cold, homer-less in 30 straight plate appearances. He then spent the weekend making those stretches a distant memory, homering in each game of the three-game set. The 110-mph blast he sent into the left-field stands Sunday marked his second hardest-hit homer of the year, per Statcast™, and with it, he reached the 30-HR plateau for the first time in his career. No Phillies player has reached that mark since Ryan Howard in 2011.
SOUND SMART
Perhaps the most puzzling part of Philadelphia's second-half freefall is who it has come against. The Phillies have scuffled against the Mets and Marlins, going a combined two games below .500 (15-17) against the bottom two clubs of the division they aspire to win.
The Braves are 17 games over (26-9) against those two clubs.
FLASH THE LEATHER
The irony of the fielding prowess Asdrubal Cabrera showed Sunday is that it was his defense that, during his time with the Mets, drew more criticism than any other part of his game. Most of that ire came with regards to playing shortstop, where Cabrera has played predominantly since the July trade that sent him from Queens to Philadelphia. But Sunday, he irked his old employer from third base, twice taking away hits from former teammates with highlight-reel plays. Cabrera dove to his right to snare a Todd Frazier hotshot in the fifth, then barehanded a slow Kevin Plawecki roller, coming in on the wet grass, in the sixth.

HE SAID IT
"We need to turn the page quickly. … I believe in the talent in that room, and that doesn't change when we don't perform well on a road trip. And we didn't perform our best on this road trip, and that can't be diminished." -- Phillies manager Gabe Kapler
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
Umpires huddled for a brief crew chief review after Conforto's homer in the fifth, which was originally ruled a double. But it only took 42 seconds to reverse the call, after it was determined Conforto's drive had hit above the orange home run line lining the top of the left-field wall.

UP NEXT
Jacob Arrieta (10-9, 3.61 ERA) lines up against rookie Erick Fedde (1-3, 6.00) in Monday's series opener vs. the Nationals, with the Phillies missing out on Max Scherzer due to weather conditions from Washington's series over the weekend. First pitch at Citizens Bank Park is slated for 7:05 p.m. ET.