After the first two games of the series, you’d be forgiven for wondering if the Mets would ever win again, let alone get back anywhere near .500 or the NL wild-card race.

But after back-to-back lopsided losses to the Cardinals, the Mets finally awoke Thursday at Citi Field with a 5-4 win.

Access the Mets beat like never before

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

And it was Juan Soto who put them ahead with a two-out solo homer in the seventh.

But all the win did was keep the Mets from being swept at home and falling 10 games under .500.

The first-place Braves come to Queens on Friday as the Mets try to come up with a way to get some positive momentum in what’s been a lost season.

Soto, who didn’t have an extra-base hit this month, snapped a 3-for-32 funk with a double in the fifth that led to a run and then hit that homer in the seventh.

“It’s always tough,’’ Soto said of the poor stretch that he was going through — and the bad baseball the Mets have played for much of the season. “When the team is losing, you try to bring back good energy.”

The Mets are going to need more than just good energy to even think about entering the postseason conversation.

“I don’t feel good about our record,’’ Carlos Mendoza said of the 30-38 Mets. “We have an opportunity here to do something. The Braves are hot. They’re a really good team. We’ve got to take care of business.”

That’s something they’ve failed to do far too often, leaving even their biggest star searching for answers.

“We’re trying to be more consistent,’’ Soto said. “I don’t have answers why we haven’t been.”

On this day, they overcame a shaky start from Christian Scott, who didn’t get out of the fifth inning.

The right-hander allowed just one run over 16 ¹/₃ innings in his previous three starts before allowing a season-high four runs in just 4 ²/₃ innings, as well as a career-high three homers, against St. Louis.

All three Cardinals homers came before there was an out in the second inning and before Scott adjusted away from his fastball.

Fortunately for Scott, his offense got off to an uncharacteristic fast start.

After Alec Burleson gave St. Louis the lead with a 424-foot solo homer in the first, Bo Bichette put the Mets up 2-1 with a two-run shot in the bottom of the inning.

Facing right-hander Hunter Dobbins, Jared Young followed two batters later with his fourth homer of the season.

But Scott was knocked around in the second. He gave up extra-base hits to four of the first five batters of the inning, including a leadoff homer from Lars Nootbaar and a two-run shot by Jimmy Crooks that gave the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.

Access the Mets beat like never before

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

The Mets tied it in the fifth, as Soto greeted left-hander Justin Bruihl with a double and scored when Young singled to center.

Soto went deep with two outs in the seventh against another lefty, JoJo Romero, to put the Mets up 5-4.

It was his 14th home run of the year.

A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley and Luke Weaver combined for 3 ¹/₃ scoreless innings out of the bullpen before Devin Williams picked up his first save since May 27.

One solid game by itself, though, won’t do much to get the Mets back into the wild-card race, as they snapped St. Louis’ six-game winning streak.

So why should the Mets believe they have what it takes to make a run, even in the face of what’s gone on during the first two-plus months of the season?

“We’ve got to look around at what we have in the locker room,” Soto said. “We have everything we need. We’ve just got to go out there and get it.”