Braves 3

Mets 1

With Pedro Martinez taking the mound today, you figure the Mets will get a well-pitched game.

Whether that will matter is a different story.

The last two games, the Mets have held the Braves to four runs total, and all the Mets have gotten is two games’ worse in the standings. The Mets scored one run on Friday, and last night they put up zero, getting shut out 3-0.

“You’ve got to score runs. That’s the bottom line,” manager Willie Randolph said. “Nothing more you can say.”

In this key series against their biggest divisional rival and the team they’re chasing for the wild card, the best the Mets can hope for now is a split. The Mets are again under .500 at 45-46, and they’re now further back of the Braves (6½ games) than before the break.

Martinez, who had to avert a sweep in Pittsburgh in his last start before the All-Star break, now has to avert a series loss today.

“We need a win [today], for sure,” Randolph said.

After scoring just one run off John Smoltz and Co. on Friday – that was due to David Wright’s solo homer – the Mets did themselves one worse than that against Tim Hudson and Co. last night.

This was Hudson’s first start in more than a month – due to a strained left oblique, he hadn’t pitched since June 13 – but he shut the Mets out over six innings.

“Pretty good for a guy who spent a month on the DL,” according to Cliff Floyd.

The Mets have now scored zero runs against Hudson in 14 innings this year.

Meanwhile, the lack of run support for Victor Zambrano has just gotten embarrassing. Zambrano again pitched a terrific game, permitting two runs in seven innings, but he took the loss.

Over his last nine starts, Zambrano has a sparkling 2.34 ERA, and as pitching coach Rick Peterson said, “This is what we expected when we made the trade.” But Zam brano is just 2-4 in those games, as the Mets have supported him with just 22 runs.

Asked about not supporting Zambrano, Floyd replied, “Him and everybody else. Spread the wealth. We’re not doing a great job of capitalizing on these performances because that’s what, as a team, we’re try ing to do. That’s what you want to do.

“You want to take full advantage of opportunities, like two runs given up, one run given up. Definitely, when you’ve got the game well in hand, winning the game or whatever. But when you don’t do it, not only is it frustrating, but you see a lot of things slipping away. And you don’t want that. It’s too late in the season to start having these types of things happen.”

Last night, the Mets managed just six hits and went 1-for-10 with men on base and 0-for-3 with men in scoring position. They went 1-for-9 and 0-for-4 in those categories on Friday, and their last hit with a man in scoring position was Mike Piazza’s homer in the eighth inning on Thursday.

The Mets nearly had a run in the third when Miguel Cairo led off with a double and went to third on Zambrano’s sac bunt. Cairo, though, decided to try to score on Jose Reyes’ grounder to first, but he was tagged out at home.

Their only other real threat came in the sixth when with two outs and none on, Carlos Beltran and Floyd singled. But Wright grounded into a fielder’s choice. The Mets wouldn’t get a runner past first the rest of the night.