SINK SANK SUNK

Callaway calls meeting as Mets fall below .500

If the Mets are going to change that tune and get back on top in June, they will have to do better. Much better.

These are now the underwater Mets, below .500 for the first time this season and sinking fast. On Friday, they sunk low enough to warrant an airing of the grievances from manager Mickey Callaway, who called a team meeting following a 7-4 loss to the Cubs at Citi Field. Two days earlier in Atlanta, the manager suggested to reporters a team meeting wouldn’t help.

“We have to play the game the right way,” Callaway said after the Mets lost for the ninth time in 12 games. “You can’t miss the cutoff men. You have to take care of the baseball and throw it to the bag. We have to run the bases the right way and not walk leadoff batters. We are not snakebitten. We have to play the game the right way.”

Michael Conforto took heat for missing the cutoff man in the seventh inning, throwing home in an attempt to nail Addison Russell tagging up from third. Tommy La Stella took second on the throw, removing the double play.

Conforto acknowledged he has to improve hitting the cutoff and said he understood the reasoning behind Callaway’s postgame meeting.

“Maybe it’s a wake-up call for some of us, and we have to start playing better,” Conforto said. “In the past, it has been early, ‘This is going to turn.’ It’s not so early anymore. It’s getting to the time where we have to start winning games. We have got to play better, so I think he is just firing us up.”

The Mets (27-28) have grown accustomed to pitching dysfunction in the late innings: They entered play with a 4.41 ERA from the bullpen, which ranked 24th in the major leagues. Never were the deficiencies more evident than on the last road trip, when the Mets suffered three walk-off losses.

With most of the bullpen unavailable Friday because of recent workload, Paul Sewald entered in the seventh and surrendered the lead on Kris Bryant’s RBI single that put the Cubs ahead 3-2. The first two runs of the inning were charged to Zack Wheeler, but scored on Sewald’s watch.

“Nobody wants to blow games down there,” Sewald said. “It’s frustrating when we have to tell starters ‘sorry’ over and over again.”

Sewald pitched 1 2/3 innings and allowed four earned runs on five hits. Kyle Schwarber’s three-run homer in the eighth — after Jose Reyes got a poor read on Willson Contreras’ grounder for a single — was the big hit. Jeurys Familia entered in the ninth with the Mets behind 6-4 and allowed a run.

Wheeler received a no-decision after pitching six-plus strong innings in which he allowed two earned runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts. But Callaway left the right-hander in the game two batters too long with a 2-0 lead in an effort to avoid using the bullpen. Russell singled leading off the inning and reached third on a hit-and-run when La Stella hit a grounder through the shortstop hole.

“We are struggling, there is no doubt about it, but we’ve got a good ballclub in here,” Wheeler said. “Some of the guys have gotten hurt, but it’s about stepping in and being ready to play. We have got to limit the runs and limit the hits and give the hitters a chance.”

Brandon Nimmo blasted a two-run homer against Tyler Chatwood in the third that gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. Amed Rosario walked to lead off the inning before Nimmo cleared the left-field fence for his seventh homer, continuing a torrid stretch.

Jay Bruce, who left the game in the fourth inning with back spasms, said the team meeting was warranted.

“We understand we are playing poorly right now,” Bruce said. “And when [Callaway] wants to talk, we’re here to listen.”