Despite great competition — and great might not be the proper word — Thursday, June 15 was the worst day of the 2017 Mets season.

It began poorly, grew worse and then really got miserable. It was another day of lost players and a lost game in what more and more is feeling like a lost season.

With these Mets, it is difficult to even know where to begin discussing another 24-hour cycle endured in 3D — dismay, despair and disability. There was the pregame injury news, which was dispiriting. The in-game injury news, in which Juan Lagares fractured his thumb. The game itself, in which the Mets stank in every facet. And that the 8-3 loss came against Washington, dissolving all the positive energy the Mets had built in picking up four games in eight days on what were the reeling Nationals.

At this point, is it even worth noting Daniel Murphy got three more hits — in part because the Mets are worse on defense collectively than Murphy ever was individually — and he now is batting .394 with 28 RBIs in 26 games against his former team?

The final tallies were three Mets either sent to or heading to the disabled list, a loss to the Nationals and a 9½-game deficit in the NL East. Bad to worse to my goodness.

“That is kind of my thought,” manager Terry Collins said when asked if there are just too many days like this to overcome. “How many can we continue to try to play through? The answer is: as many as pop up.”

It is the right sentiment, seconded by one of Collins’ leaders, the ever-positive Curtis Granderson, who said, “You don’t hang your head by any means.”

But thousands of years ago, Ovid wrote, “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force, but through persistence.”

The dripping water of injury, underperformance and lack of suitable reinforcement has through persistence begun to erode this Mets season beyond repair.

Just last weekend, the Mets were giddy with the healthy, productive returns of Yoenis Cespedes, Seth Lugo and Steven Matz. But these are the Mets, whose true home is not Citi Field but the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Since then, their starting shortstop (Asdrubal Cabrera), starting second baseman (Neil Walker) and only true center fielder (Lagares) have gone down, joining their ace (Noah Syndergaard) and closer (Jeurys Familia) and whatever Matt Harvey is considered these days. At least Harvey was a better option than Rafael Montero or Tyler Pill, who become the options next week as the Mets still plan to use a six-man rotation during this long stretch without a day off.

The Mets had been prepared for bad news with Walker and flew Gavin Cecchini in to replace him on the roster. Harvey was worse than expected, but was not immediately put on the DL because of the continuing stupidity of having a Triple-A team in Las Vegas, not close enough to rush in reinforcements when needed.

In a pregame press conference, general manager Sandy Alderson also announced that after recent testing, Syndergaard still is a month away from even picking up a ball.

Then, on what seemed a rather routine attempt at a diving catch in the fifth inning, Lagares hurt his thumb. Jay Bruce waved to the dugout and Collins and trainer Ray Ramirez came out to examine Lagares. He actually stayed in the game, but when he couldn’t hold the bat in the bottom of the inning, he was removed to go for tests. Collins was told not long after that the thumb had a fracture. The manager’s first thought: “Yep, not surprised.”

How could he be? These Mets receive two kinds of injury results — horrific and whatever it is that is worse than horrific.

This comes at a time when Lagares was hitting well. But more important, Lagares is the lone above-average defender on the Mets.

Robert Gsellman was not sharp Thursday night. To survive he was going to need strong defense. He got the opposite. The Mets convert the lowest percentage of balls in play into outs in the majors. Now Lagares will not even be available as a defensive replacement.

Collins has been told by his bosses to be more judicious in discussing injuries, but when asked if Lagares is going to the DL, he blurted, “Oh, God, yeah.”

Before this latest injury, Alderson had reiterated he was not ready yet to summon Amed Rosario because he did not deem his bat ready and because “we have good players here.” It was meant as a rallying cry and a show of confidence. But then one more player was lost and perhaps simply the defense and energy of Rosario would be valuable now.

Though, after the worst day in a season full of them, it is harder to imagine any single move being enough to cure these Mets.