PHILADELPHIA — Alec Bohm stopped when he should have gone. Brandon Marsh kept going when he should have stopped.

In the balance, the Phillies lost.

It all happened within a five-pitch span of the seventh inning Tuesday night in a 6-5 loss to the Astros that prevented the Phillies from gaining ground in both the division and wild-card races.

And it exposed an underrated weakness. Because while the bullpen’s tendency to handle seventh- and eighth-inning leads like a hot potato and the shortcomings on defense are more glaring, the Phillies’ baserunning can be an issue, too.

To wit: Trailing 6-3 after Andrew Painter dropped them down an early 5-0 hole, the Phillies had the makings of a rally against Astros reliever AJ Blubaugh after Bohm led off with a double and Bryson Stott got hit by a pitch.

Marsh crushed a fastball 403 feet to Monty’s Angle, the part of the fence in left-center that juts back from 387 feet to 409. Astros center fielder Daulton Varsho tried to run it down but couldn’t make the catch, as the ball hit the wall and ricocheted into right field.

Bohm got a poor read and retreated to second base, as Stott approached the bag. Instead of both players racing home and Marsh winding up on third base, only Bohm scored, with the speedier Stott on his heels and having to be held at third.

Instead of cutting the margin to 6-5 with nobody out and the tying run on third for J.T. Realmuto, it was 6-4 with the tying run on second. Realmuto took a first-pitch strike, laid off two pitches out of the zone, then hit a 102.9-mph liner to shortstop Jeremy Peña.

Peña dove to his right to snare the drive. He got to his feet and easily threw out Marsh, who had already broke toward third after getting his initial lead.

Oops.

Imagine what might have been, especially after a ninth-inning uprising fell short. Stott singled and scored on Edmundo Sosa’s double off the center-field wall against Astros closer Josh Hader. But Realmuto, Derek Hill and Kyle Schwarber flew out to cap the Phillies’ fourth loss in six games.

And so, the Phillies were 4 1/2 games behind the NL East-leading Braves, who lost at home, and fell into a tie for the top wild card with the Cubs, who were tied in the seventh inning against the Brewers.

Painter had been trending upward since his 43-day stint back in Triple-A. In 65 innings before the demotion, he had a 7.06 ERA; through 40 1/3 innings since returning, he had a 3.12 mark, including seven dazzling innings last week in Arizona.

Against the Astros, he hit a speed bump.

Painter gave up four runs in the second inning, keyed by Christian Walker’s three-run homer on a sinker that drifted back over the plate. Cam Smith added a leadoff homer in the fourth to open a 5-0 lead.

The Phillies, subdued for five innings by Astros starter Hayden Wesneski, rallied for three runs in a five-pitch span of the sixth inning. Justin Crawford doubled and scored on Schwarber’s RBI single before Trea Turner hit his first homer since Aug. 8, a two-run shot.

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