NEW YORK -- Call up your local cynic. Ask how they thought this season might end after the Mets lost their first five games and were at dire risk of losing a sixth. Ask how they figured things might unfold after the Mets dropped eight of nine at the end of May, or when they sat 11 games under .500 a few days into June.

Actually, forget the cynics; some of the most optimistic sorts did not envision the Mets entering the second half of the season within spitting distance of a winning record. But even after losing a rain-soaked, 11-inning, 10-5 game to the Astros at Citi Field on Sunday, that’s exactly where the Mets stand. Through 81 games -- the exact midpoint of the season -- they are 40-41.

“Interesting, right?” manager Carlos Mendoza said before the game. “We’ve been through a lot, ups and downs. But that’s part of 162-plus. You go in understanding there’s going to be hard times, and then there’s going to be some stretches where it’s fun.”

Added Mendoza: “The past two or three weeks, we’ve seen what we’re capable of.”

Sunday, the Mets demonstrated both their trademark pluck and the weaknesses that continue to define them. Trailing for most of the afternoon, they tied things on a Brandon Nimmo two-run homer in the seventh inning. Then, following a rain delay of close to three hours, the Mets returned to the field to watch the bottom fall out of their patchwork bullpen.

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After Adam Ottavino allowed an unearned run in the 10th inning, Matt Festa -- the newest addition to this unit, a Staten Island native called up Sunday morning to provide a fresh arm for the relief corps -- allowed five runs to seal New York’s fate.

Asked afterward about having “a few” options heading into the 11th inning with Edwin Díaz suspended and four other relievers injured, Mendoza offered a rueful chuckle.

“I don’t know about a few options,” he said, noting that only Festa and rookie Tyler Jay were available in the bullpen.

That will be a challenge the Mets must continue to navigate over the coming weeks. But even after losing a series for the first time this month, bright spots were easy to find.

Nimmo wasn’t wrong in leaning on an old baseball cliché, calling this a game of inches. Had a two-hour, 47-minute rain delay not spoiled their momentum heading into the bottom of the ninth, or had Luis Torrens’ leadoff liner following the delay sliced a bit less to the left, or had Nimmo played Jake Meyers’ go-ahead RBI single in the top of the 11th a bit more aggressively, perhaps things would have ended differently.

The point is, none of it was catastrophic. The Mets have done well to move from 11 games under .500 to one game under over the span of four weeks. While they’re still not in a position to be losing games with regularity, they’ve at least built themselves a tiny margin for error.

More than that, the Mets have changed the narrative of their season, transforming a dead-in-the-water reputation into a world full of Grimace costumes and “OMG” dance parties. Nimmo still credits the Mets’ team meeting at the end of May as the line of demarcation for their season.

“I mean, we came back,” starter Luis Severino said. “We were struggling a couple of months ago. We are in a better spot right now. We need to just think about that.”

With Houston in their rearview, the Mets are about to embark on, statistically, their easiest stretch of schedule all season. Their next 18 games will come against the Nationals, Pirates, Rockies and Marlins, four teams that are a combined 59 games below .500. That’s not to call them pushovers; Washington and Pittsburgh in particular feature some of the brightest young starting pitchers in the sport, presenting a challenge for any club. Nonetheless, it’s an opportunity.

The Mets know it. Exactly halfway through their season, they are not yet where they want to be. But they are, somehow, someway, on the proper path.

“It’s been a tale of two seasons, even in this first half,” Nimmo said. “You’ve seen a team that has played really, really good baseball since that team meeting, and I think has given us a real good argument for going for it and trying to make the playoffs and make this push. But there’s still a lot of work left to be done.”