MLB

Mets force Phillies into closed-door meeting

Before the Mets’ 5-0 win last night at Citi Field, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel downplayed the importance of team meetings.

Nearly six hours later, Manuel held a team meeting.

Funny how things change when your team loses four consecutive games and gets shut out in three of them.

BOX SCORE

“I wanted to say something and I felt like it was time,” Manuel said. “I’d like for us to pick it up a little bit and get more intense and get a fire about us. I felt like I just needed to remind our guys where we’re at and what we want to do. I think we know how good we can be, but we’re only as good as how we’re playing. Things can change real quick.”

Shane Victorino couldn’t argue with his manager’s assessment.

“We just need to play with some intensity,” Victorino said. “It’s not about losing and winning. It’s about losing the right way and conducting ourselves the right way. Basically, that was the whole brunt of the conversation, nothing more than that. There was no reaming, no yelling at anybody, just understanding to go up there and if we’re gonna lose, to lose the right way.”

Following the Phillies’ loss, the first-place, two-time defending National League champions are just three games ahead of the fourth-place Mets. They have been shut out by the Mets in back-to-back games for the first time since 1998, making 35-year-olds R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi look like the legendary pair of Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain.

“Nothing’s slipping away because we have 117 games to go,” Manuel said. “We shouldn’t be getting down. We’ve been playing baseball the right way for four or five years and we want to keep that. [Last night’s meeting] was just a little reminder of those things.”

By retaining the core of a team who has won three straight division titles, Manuel knows the Phillies will always have a bull’s-eye on their backs.

“Winning damn sure ain’t easy . . . don’t take nothing for granted in this game,” Manuel said. “People pat you on the back at how good you are. That’s good, but let that go in one ear and out the other. Just keep producing. That’s why they say you’re good. They like to see you fall. They like to see you get in a slump. They like to see you lose games.

“More than likely, we’re gonna lose four in a row again this season,” he said. “That’s baseball. That’s how it is.”

howard.kussoy@nypost.com