NEW YORK -- Everything set up nicely for the Phillies on Saturday.

They had an opportunity to clinch the National League East title in the early evening with a victory over the Mets at Citi Field. If they won, they could have celebrated at night in Manhattan, watched football on Sunday afternoon and finished a four-game series against their division rivals on Sunday night.

It would have been a nice little weekend in New York.

Instead, the Phils must beat the Mets on Sunday night to clinch after losing on Saturday, 6-3.

“It didn’t work out,” Kyle Schwarber said. “The biggest thing for us, we want to be able to get the division won. And also, two, we want to keep winning baseball games until the end of the season. So that’s kind of the game plan right now.”

The Phillies need to win only one of their remaining seven games to win their first division title since 2011. If they win just one more game, they will finish no worse than 93-69. Even if the Mets beat the Phillies on Sunday and win their remaining six games, they will finish no better than 93-69.

But because the Phillies won the season series against the Mets, they own the postseason tiebreaker against New York.

So if both teams finish with 93 wins, the Phils win the division.

But the Phillies are playing for more than that. They are trying to lock up a first-round bye and a No. 1 seed in the NL. They could wrap up the bye early next week. They have three fewer losses than Milwaukee, the NL Central champion.

The Phillies currently hold the No. 1 seed over the Dodgers (92-63) via tiebreaker after their loss at home to the Rockies late Saturday night.

The good news is that the Phillies have Zack Wheeler on the mound on Sunday. He is not only motivated to lead the Phils to their first division title in 13 years, but he is trying to run down Braves left-hander Chris Sale for the NL Cy Young Award. Wheeler is 6-1 with a 1.71 ERA in his past nine starts.

Schwarber started the game with a leadoff homer against Mets left-hander Sean Manaea. But Manaea retired the next 12 batters he faced until Nick Castellanos hit a solo homer to left field to tie the game at 2-2 in the fifth.

• Most career leadoff home runs in MLB history

Manaea then retired the next nine batters.

Ranger Suárez allowed two runs in five innings, allowing solo homers to Francisco Alvarez and Luisangel Acuña. His velocity was up, but he lacked command at times. He spiked a handful of curveballs and changeups in the dirt.

“I made some adjustments that helped me get my velocity back,” Suárez said through the team’s interpreter.

Orion Kerkering allowed three runs in the seventh to give the Mets a 5-2 lead. Kerkering had been on a remarkable roll for the past month, striking out 18 and walking two in 14 scoreless innings since Aug. 20.

But Kerkering walked Starling Marte to start the seventh, the first batter he had walked since Sept. 1. He then hit Pete Alonso with a pitch with one out, setting up big hits from Brandon Nimmo and Alvarez.

They were the first runs Kerkering had allowed since Aug. 15.

“He’s been so good,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He was due for one of these.”

The Phillies opened this seven-game road trip with an outside chance to clinch a postseason berth and a division title earlier this week in Milwaukee. But they lost two of three to the Brewers, pushing everything to New York.

Now, they must win Sunday night or try to clinch next week at home.