There was a time, and not too long ago, when the first game of the baseball season was played in Cincinnati. The Mets will open a series in Cincinnati against the Reds on Tuesday night hoping that this is a re-opening of their own season. Better late than never.

“That’s what we’re hoping for,” Buck Showalter said on Sunday night.

At least he did not say “on to Cincinnati,” the way Bill Belichick once did when his Patriots were coming off a bad loss and it looked as if their season might have gone off the rails at the time.

The Mets had another bad loss on Sunday to the Rockies at Citi Field, despite an early lead. The final score was 13-6, and of the five pitchers whom Showalter used in the game, four weren’t on the roster when the Mets left Spring Training. The Mets -- who you may have heard feature the largest payroll in the sport -- are now 3-11 since they finished up a 7-3 West Coast trip in San Francisco just two weeks ago.

Over this 14-game stretch, only the Cardinals have had as bad a record. Even the A’s and Royals have been better, both of those last-place teams at 4-10. You want to know how bad things have been for the Mets lately? That’s how bad. So they face the Reds now with a 17-18 record, still tied for second place in the National League East with the Marlins, seven games behind the Braves.

By the way? The Yankees, who have the second-biggest payroll, are only at 18-17 -- it makes New York a .500 baseball town at a combined 35-35 -- and currently in last place in the AL East, 10 games behind the Rays. The Yankees are hurt. The Mets have been plenty hurt. This still hasn’t been anything like the season expected from either one of them.

But at least the Mets open their series with the Reds with the top of the rotation they expected to have when they arrived in Port St. Lucie, Fla., for Spring Training. Max Scherzer makes his second start since coming off a suspension for having fingers that were too sticky one afternoon in Los Angeles. Then Justin Verlander makes his second start of the whole season, finally having come off the injured list to face his and Scherzer’s old team, the Tigers, last week in Detroit.

Finally, there is Kodai Senga, who has been Showalter’s most reliable starter this season -- and by a lot -- after having come to the Mets from Japan. Senga will carry a 4-1 record into Cincinnati (in six starts), a 3.48 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 32 innings pitched. It means he has averaged a tick over five innings per start. With the Mets this season, who have used 10 starting pitchers so far, it almost feels as if Senga has pitched one complete game after another.

For now, the season has been a festival of short outings for starters, with both the starters and relievers turning everything into a Home Run Derby for Mets opponents. Just 35 games into the season, Mets pitchers have given up 52 homers, making this the fastest any Mets staff has gotten to 50 in the team’s history. Mets pitchers don’t just lead the NL in home runs allowed, they also lead the league in walks (134).

Here is some of what Showalter said to the media after another bad loss for his team, in this stretch where they were swept by the Tigers and nearly swept at home by the Nationals:

"Play better. You know, nobody wants to hear it. There's plenty of things to grab on. I understand everybody's job is pointing to reasons why they perceive it. So is mine, right? Just play better. You control it. We control it. It's not like there's some outside element. Just play better. ... Each day’s another chance to begin down that path.”

In addition to everything else, Showalter needs the two stars in his batting order -- Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor -- to start hitting like stars. Alonso still has 11 home runs, tied for second most in baseball. But his batting average has fallen to .235. Lindor, who has delivered 25 RBIs, has seen his own average fall to .217. Starling Marte, who might not be hitting in the No. 2 spot in the order, is at .213 with just one homer so far.

With it all, you have to put the Mets struggles, whatever the payroll is, in the context of the long season, especially with 127 games left to play. All you have to do is look back to last May in the NL East. After 35 games a year ago, the Mets were 23-12 and the Braves were even worse than the Mets are right now, at 16-19. The Mets, seven games behind Atlanta now, were seven games ahead at one point. You know what happened after that. The Braves fell even further behind before coming all the way back to win the division.

That script has been flipped, at least for now. Not the season the Mets expected, not even close. Scherzer and Verlander get a do-over, starting now. The Mets are hoping they all do. On to Cincinnati.