NEW YORK – One pitch wipes out six months of success. It’s the cruelty of 21st century baseball that rewards fall proficiency over summer superiority.

Carlos Estévez crouched on the mound, put his hands on his knees and turned his head to look over his left shoulder as Francisco Lindor fired his 2-1 fastball toward right-center field. When the ball landed in Philadelphia’s bullpen for a sixth-inning grand slam that erased a 1-0 Phillies lead, the reliever dropped his hands and his head sank.

“I knew it right away,” Estévez said after Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the New York Mets closed the National League Division Series in four games and sent the Phillies home for the winter.

Sixteen years and still without a World Series title. And in each of the past three seasons, Bryce Harper & Co. turned off sooner and sooner.

“Every loss is about the same, man,” Harper said. “Anytime you lose and don’t finish the job of a World Series, it’s the same. Whether it’s the next round or the World Series round, it all feels pretty much the same.”

Philadelphia reached Game 6 of the 2022 World Series before losing to Houston. It appeared to be on the brink of success with an offense of Harper, Kyle Schwarber, JT Realmuto and Nick Castellanos, and a rotation led by Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler.

Trea Turner was added for 2023 and the Phillies took a 3-2 lead over Arizona in the NL Championship Series last year before dropping Games 6 and 7 at home.

Then the Phillies started this season 46-20 to open a 10-game division lead and finished 95-67 to win the NL East for the first time since 2011.

“You just feel like you’re failing,” Turner said. “We had a nice season. We had some good memories and all that. But if your goal is to win the World Series and I think we’ve talked about that a lot, then that’s nothing but kind of a failure. So I don’t think it was from lack of trying, lack of talent or who we have in the clubhouse, we just couldn’t get it done.”

There were signs of trouble heading into October. The Phillies lost eight of their last thirteen games during the regular season.

“I didn’t feel like we were playing like ourselves the last few weeks,” Turner said.

Philadelphia hitters hit .186 against the Mets, including 6-for-31 with runners in scoring position. And relievers had an ERA of 11.37, allowing 11 of the 15 inherited to score.

A third championship after 1980 and 2008 remains elusive. The core could be held together. Estévez and fellow pitchers Jeff Hoffman and Spencer Turnbull are the only players eligible for free agency.

“I don’t like losing a series. I want to win a World Series, but in a short series anything can happen,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “But I don’t see us going backwards, no.”

Turner understood the frustration of Phillies fans who expected so much more.

“They wear this as hard as we do,” he said.