The Mets went from May to Mayday to mayhem in a torturous five-run inning that buried them in a 5-3 loss to the Phillies, spoiling a Jacob deGrom gem, in their season opener at Citizens Bank Park.

Entrusted a two-run lead in his Mets debut, Trevor May loaded the bases with one out in the eighth. Another new arrival, lefty Aaron Loup, entered and plunked Bryce Harper to force in a run. J.T. Realmuto’s ensuing RBI single tied it, and Luis Guillorme’s throw home that ticked off James McCann’s glove on Alex Bohm’s grounder (the error was charged to Guillorme) allowed two additional runs. The Phillies scored a final run on Didi Gregorius’ sacrifice fly.

The Mets got three straight two-out hits in the ninth against Jose Alvarado, but Pete Alonso was retired with the tying runs on base to conclude the game.

DeGrom was removed after only 77 pitches. The right-hander fired six shutout innings and allowed only three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks. He also went 2-for-3 with an RBI on a night the Mets totaled 10 hits, none for extra bases.

As we focused on the Mets’ contract talks with Francisco Lindor, Michael Conforto and even Noah Syndergaard, the team had still another idea: It was quietly reaching out to its biggest star, Jacob deGrom, about a new deal.

According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, the Mets and deGrom this spring engaged in preliminary discussions on a contract extension. Talks did not progress and are not expected to resume this season. Repeat: This is a dead issue for now.

So why is the information meaningful? Because it shows that the Mets are at least mindful of attempting to head off deGrom’s opt out after the 2022 season, and keep him with the team for the remainder of his career. This is worth bookmarking for next offseason….

Earlier this spring, deGrom answered questions about his opt out and the possibility of remaining with the Mets for his entire career.

“The goal is to go out there and perform and then when that time comes, make that decision,” deGrom said. “But one thing I do think is really, really, really cool is whenever somebody spends their entire career with one team. You don’t see it happen a whole lot anymore. So it’s definitely something that I’ve thought about, and we just have to see when that time comes.”

You’re probably already familiar with the general contours of that list, but it can be summarized thusly: Every pitcher who has won three Cy Youngs or more is in the Hall of Fame except Clemens — whose connection to performance-enhancing drugs has stalled his candidacy — and the two active pitchers, while the majority who have won “only” two are outside the Hall, a situation that’s not likely to change until five years after Verlander retires. He’s a lock, having surpassed the 200-win and 3,000-strikeout milestones (he has 226 wins and 3,013 strikeouts), and nearly reached the starting pitcher JAWS standard of 61.6 (his 60.9 is the active lead), though he’ll have to wait until his return from Tommy John surgery to finish that pursuit.

As for the active three-timers, Kershaw is almost certainly on his way to Cooperstown, having pitched himself within range of 200 wins (he has 175), 3,000 strikeouts (he has 2,526) and the JAWS standard (he has 59.7). Scherzer has 175 wins as well; he’s closer to 3,000 strikeouts (2,784) but a bit behind in JAWS (55.4). Both have huge Hall of Fame Monitor scores — 199 for Kerhsaw, 154 for Scherzer, where 100 is “a good possibility” and 130 “a virtual cinch” — that only stand to increase once they hit those round numbers.

From among the two-time winners, what separates Verlander, Gibson, Glavine, and Perry from the others is longevity; they all blew past 3,000 innings save for Velander, who’s 12 shy. Lincecum and McLain didn’t even reach 2,000 innings before fading away, and Santana barely cleared that bar, with Saberhagen (2,562.1) and Halladay (2,749.1) coming closer; the latter is the only one from that quintet to reach 200 wins, no mean feat in that small amount of time even if you don’t particularly care about the stat. He’s also the only one from that quintet who’s in the Hall.