One week ago, the Phillies were in first place. Their starting pitching was superb. Their batters were getting on base. Their bullpen had bounced from last season’s rock bottom. Having won five of six against the Braves and Mets -- the projected powers of the National League East -- Philadelphia looked like a formidable threat to end the National League’s longest postseason drought.

But that all happened at home.

The road, as has been the case in recent years, has not been nearly as kind to a Phillies club that fell to the Mets, 5-1, on Wednesday night at Citi Field for its third straight loss in this series and fifth in six games on this road swing through Atlanta and Queens.

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“As a team, as a club, we have to be better, especially in that batter’s box right now,” Bryce Harper said. “We need to go out there as big leaguers and play the game we know how.”

Rain is in the forecast for the matinee finale to this trip on Thursday, and perhaps the Phils could use a precipitation-aided reprieve (especially with Jacob deGrom on the schedule). Because few of the strengths they displayed at Citizens Bank Park earlier this month seem to have arrived at baggage claim.

If not for the controversial call on Alec Bohm’s game-winning run scored on Sunday night in Atlanta, the Phils might be 0-fer this roadie.

Zack Wheeler looked to stop the skid in its tracks Wednesday against his former Mets mates. And to be sure, in making an adjustment after a two-run first inning, Wheeler was much better in this turn than he was in his last at Truist Park. But he was charged with three runs in 6 1/3 innings, and that wasn’t good enough on a night when the Phillies’ bats had very little to offer offensively.

The Phillies were held hitless by lefty David Peterson until Jean Segura swatted a solo homer with one out in the fifth. But that was their only run of the evening as the Phils’ pronounced offensive struggles continued. This was their second 14-strikeout game in as many days.

If you want to make this diagnosis as simple as possible, start here: The Phillies aren’t reaching base. That issue begins with leadoff hitter Andrew McCutchen, who is 5-for-36, and works its way down the lineup.

In the six games at home, though the offense wasn’t otherworldly, the Phillies did get on base at a respectable .348 clip.

In the six games on the road, their OBP is a lowly .219.

So, the strikeouts have caught up to this club. The Phillies have K’d in 28.9 percent of their plate appearances this season -- the third-worst percentage in baseball, as of this writing. They know it can’t continue.

“I don’t think our swings have been really big,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I don’t think we’re out of control. I just think we’re missing balls. We’re chasing a little bit, but I don’t see it like egregious chases. We’re just not swinging well right now.”

The bullpen has taken a step back, too. JoJo Romero, summoned when Archie Bradley hit the injured list earlier this week, served up a two-run homer to James McCann in the eighth inning, and that’s 12 earned runs in 17 innings pitched for the relievers on the road trip.

In other words, as good as things looked at home, that’s how bad they’ve looked on the road.

“It’s baseball,” Wheeler said. “You’re going to have those ups and downs throughout the season. Get them both out of the way now, right? It’s a long season.”

The Phillies haven’t reached the postseason since 2011. In the time since, they are 351-335 at Citizens Bank Park but just 271-411 away from the comforts of home. That .397 road winning percentage is one of the three worst in the Majors in that span.

To get where they want to go, the Phillies simply must improve that mark. Alas, they haven’t done so on this first trip of 2021.