Mets' Dominic Smith, Luis Rojas react to playoff window narrowing after loss to Rays

Wednesday's 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays ended with the Mets watching a team celebrate on their home turf at Citi Field.

After the Mets (25-31) fell to the Rays (37-20), who popped confetti in the infield upon clinching the AL East, Dominic Smith was asked about his team's narrowing window for the postseason.

"I don't want to say it's surprising," said Smith, who went 1 for 4 with a solo home run -- his 10th of the season. "Obviously, it's been a little bit disappointing. We got out here and compete every day, and we hold ourselves to a high standard. So being a playoff team, that's something that was everybody's same goal and something that we wanted to reach as a team. To be where we're at right now, obviously, we're definitely not too happy."

The Mets entered the night trailing the final NL Wild Card spot by 2.5 games. With four road games against the Washington Nationals (23-33) Thursday through Sunday at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., time is ticking on the Mets' playoff hopes.

"There's been a combination of things," said Luis Rojas. "If you look back at the three-game winning streaks, which is what we've had -- I think, a couple times, those have been the highest -- some momentum, sometimes, has been stopped. One was back in Miami (three straight wins Aug. 17-19) when we had the stoppage of the games and then we got some games suspended.

"And then other times, we've been challenged in a lot of areas -- especially with the starting pitching. That was one of the things that built up. For the batters, they've done a good job the whole year, just to put runs together. It's just we were playing 'catch up' sometimes. And we're still doing it -- today you saw the guys pushing again -- and that's this team's spirit.

"And tonight's another tough loss. We didn't throw the ball particularly well overall. But the guys will be ready, once again, tomorrow to compete. And we still have a shot to win more games left and we're competing. We just do what we do, which is just keep fighting like we did in that ninth inning."