Mets can’t get out of their own way again with loss — even after Red Sox’s brutal travel woes

It took the Red Sox nearly a full day to get from Chicago to Queens because of plane issues. 

Boston likely would have hitchhiked to Queens from the Midwest if they had to in order to get a piece of the Mets, who can’t get out of their own way for long. 

Fresh off their first series win in nearly a month, the Mets used the advantage of facing a team dealing with a litany of travel woes to remind everyone that they’re capable of wasting just about any good fortune with a 6-2 loss Friday night. 

By the end, Citi Field sounded more like Fenway Park, especially after Wilyer Abreu’s game-clinching two-run shot in the ninth. 

“It was crazy,” Brett Baty said of the Red Sox arriving at LaGuardia Airport less than three hours before the scheduled start time. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Props to them for coming out and competing. I know they’ve been playing well.’’ 

The Mets also squandered a solid start by Nolan McLean, who allowed just two unearned runs in six innings, as an offense that briefly came to life as the Mets won four of five games heading into Friday went quiet again. 

Down three runs in the eighth, with runners on the corners and no one out after A.J. Ewing opened the inning with base hits, Francisco Lindor, Carson Benge and Jorge Polanco failed to drive in a run, with a pair of shallow fly balls and a pop-up off right-hander Garrett Whitlock. 

Against a Red Sox team that’s surging back into the American League wild-card race with a winning streak that’s now at seven games, the Mets quickly fell behind. 

“Baseball is unpredictable,’’ interim manager Andy Green said of the unusual circumstances. “I honestly felt if we held them scoreless in the first couple innings, they’d probably tire out.” 

Instead, after the start of the game was pushed back 36 minutes due to Boston’s travel issues — stemming from mechanical problems with the team’s plane — the Mets got off to a bad start. 

Juan Soto dropped Anthony Seigler’s fly ball to left for a two-base error to lead off the game. 

Seigler moved to third on Ceddanne Rafaela’s bunt and after a four-pitch walk to Abreu, McLean struck out Romy Gonzalez. 

But Masataka Yoshida slapped a two-run double to left to put the Mets in an early hole. 

A Soto sacrifice fly in the third was all they got against Sonny Gray, who allowed one run in six innings. 

But A.J. Minter struggled in the seventh after taking over for McLean, as the left-hander gave up a bunt hit to Cheng and a two-run shot to Seigler to make it 4-1. 

It was a blow for Minter, who figures to be a trade candidate by the Aug. 3 deadline, as he gave up four hits in his lone inning of work. 

He’d given up just one run and 11 base runners in 17 innings prior to Friday. 

The Mets then blew the opportunity to get back into the game in the eighth, as they went 0-for-8 for the game with runners in scoring position. 

“We put ourselves in a lot of scoring positions throughout the whole day and weren’t able to cash in,’’ Green said. “We had a lot of really good at-bats. We were waiting for that one more really good at-bat.” 

Even with the middle of the order up against Whitlock, they weren’t able to deliver.