Brewers 6

Mets 4

Victor Zambrano’s putrid outing for the Mets on Tuesday had a lingering odor last night.

Both Roberto Hernandez and Braden Looper worked two innings Tuesday, in part because Zambrano lasted a lousy 11/3 innings against the Brewers before hitting the showers.

But Willie Randolph last night called on his trusted setup man and reliever, and both faltered during a 6-4 loss to mediocre Milwaukee.

Pedro Martinez handled the Brewers, allowing three runs over seven innings. He gave the Mets some length a night after the bullpen worked 92/3 innings because Zambrano was horrible.

Hernandez served up the game-tying solo homer to Carlos Lee with one out in the eighth, and Looper was even worse.

Lyle Overbay’s two-run single up the middle with two outs in the ninth gave Milwaukee the lead for good.

Despite Doug Mientkiewicz’s leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth and a one-out Jose Reyes single that put runners at the corners, the Mets (54-53) couldn’t rally. They lost their sixth game in nine tries.

With runners on first and third in the ninth, Miguel Cairo bounced out to third. Local whipping boy Carlos Beltran ended the game with a ground out to first and was booed, but this game was lost in relief.

Martinez allowed two two-out runs in the second and Bill Hall’s solo homer leading off the seventh, and the righty exited following the seventh after 105 pitches.

Even though Hernandez tossed two innings and threw 34 pitches in Tuesday’s 9-8 win, he was called upon again. Danny Graves, for one, was fresh, but he hasn’t been reliable.

So Hernandez served up a gopher ball for the second straight appearance after going from April 25 to Tuesday without allowing a homer. Lee hammered a 95 mph fastball that was right down Main Street, depositing it over the center-field fence. It was Lee’s 90th RBI this season, tops in the NL.

The next inning, Looper emerged from the bullpen door although he tossed 35 pitches on Tuesday.

Slow-footed Damian Miller reached when third baseman David Wright waited to backhand a grounder and threw errantly to first. After a sacrifice moved pinch-runner Trent Durrington to second, the Mets caught a break. Mike Piazza improbably threw out Durrington trying to steal third on a disputed call. Durrington was ejected for arguing.

But Looper couldn’t capitalize. He allowed an infield single to Wes Helms on another play Wright couldn’t make, a single to Brady Clark, and a walk to Rickie Weeks. After Overbay bounced a ball past the mound, many in the 40,569 at Shea chanted “Looper [bleeps!]”

Wright rapped a go-ahead two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth. Following a Milwaukee mound conference, Wright laced a first-pitch fastball from starter Victor Santos to right, giving the Mets a 4-2 lead.

The Mets trailed 2-0 in the second, but Cliff Floyd got a run back with a mammoth solo blast off Victor Santos leading off the second. The 420-foot homer, Floyd’s 25th of the season, bounced off the “Home Run Apple” to the right of center.

In the fourth, Piazza tied the game with a 430-foot bomb over the left-field bleachers. Piazza was batting seventh for the first time since 1993.

Entering last night, Beltran was batting .263 with 12 homers and 56 RBIs. Randolph keeps repeating that his center fielder will be fine, but time is running out.

Beltran doubled as part of the fifth-inning rally, but he finished 1-for-4 after going 0-for-6 Tuesday.

“I come to the ballpark every single day to work,” he said. “When the game starts, it seems like nothing goes my way.”