Monday is a night that many New York Mets fans are probably ready to forget. After what looked like would be a phenomenal pitching game backed by Jacob DeGrom's 7 1/3 inning performance, the Mets were sitting pretty with a 6-1 lead going into the 8th inning. The problem is that they couldn't keep that lead.

After the Washington Nationals posted a six-run 8th inning, the Mets found themselves in a deficit that they couldn't overcome, despite their ability to bounce back throughout the season.

This game was a wake-up call for the Mets and their fans.

Coming into the game at 12-2, there seemed to be no way the Mets could lose after going up by five runs, but s*** happens sometimes and you need to move forward from it. The Mets shouldn't forget about the game altogether, but rather learn from the mistakes made.

It won't always be easy

Through their 12-2 start coming into this game, every game seemed like it was served on a silver platter. Every decision Mickey Callaway made was the right one and there was nothing possible that he could do wrong. Well, the reality of baseball, which Callaway is aware of but some fans try to avoid, is that there will always be a downhill. Things won't always work the way you want it to.

This does give the team an early season test though: overcoming adversity.

This isn't the first loss of their young season, but you can be d*mn sure it was the most painful. The Mets have been known for bouncing back so far this season, as far as scoring runs go, but let's see if the team can bounce back from such a demoralizing loss like this.

They have yet to go on a two-game losing streak, so let's hope they can keep up that trend.

Aggressive baserunning doesn't always pay off

Aggressive baserunning is something that was emphasized coming into the season for the Mets, which has proven to be effective so far this season, but, at least for the fans, they need to know that doesn't always work out the way that it is drawn up.

Two possible run opportunities were thrown down the drain due to a bit too aggressive baserunning from Michael Conforto being thrown out at the plate in the 3rd or Asdrubal Cabrera being thrown at third in the 9th.

These two mistakes potentially cost the Mets the game.

Every button that Callaway has pushed so far this season has worked until Monday, so it's imperative to acknowledge that they won't work all the time. There's a risk and reward for every action made in a baseball game, unfortunately, at least after the 7th inning, it was all risk and no reward.

Don't taunt Bryce Harper

Never, and I mean never, taunt Bryce Harper. When the Mets had a fairly comfortable lead, the fans decided to start taunting Harper, thinking that the game was already in hand. Well, that was wrong.

Harper always makes his hecklers pay for giving him issues. For G*d's sake, the guy hit a broken bat home run. If that doesn't intimidate you, then I don't know what does.

Not that I want to assign blame to anything specific in this game that led to the Mets loss, but I would put the taunting from the fans on that list.

The Mets should not get down on themselves and must persevere through the pain of this loss. How the team reacts to this will determine how they will end up this season. If you can't bounce back from this, then good luck going deep into the playoffs, if to the playoffs at all.