PHILADELPHIA – Have you ever had a day you’d like to erase from everyone’s memory?

For Mets closer Braden Looper, that day came on April 4 this year. It was Opening Day. The Mets faced the Reds in Cincinnati and the eyes of Mets Nation were on the game to see Pedro Martinez’s debut. Looper entered the game in the ninth with the Mets up 6-4. He proceeded to give up a two-run home run to Adam Dunn and a solo shot to Joe Randa to lose the game and make him the target of Mets fans’ ire.

But since then Looper has been a steady force for the Mets. The closer has 14 saves and only one blown save since that disastrous outing in April.

“It didn’t make me doubt myself,” Looper said. “I have a lot of confidence in my ability and what I can do.

“It’s like your season gets started later. Everybody starts off from scratch and you’ve got to start building up confidence no matter who you are, whether you’re Pedro or me or Carlos Beltran. You know you’re good, but when you start pitching well your confidence soars and you just take off from there.”

Looper’s confidence has been higher than the 747s over Shea lately. He has given up just one earned run and no home runs since May 4. Still, Looper is not perceived to be one of the better closers in baseball. It may be because his ERA is still in recovery from the Opening Day hit parade. Looper’s ERA was 2.84 entering last night’s game against Philadelphia, but if you removed that first outing from the equation his ERA drops to 1.78.

“It takes a long time to recover from giving up three runs and not getting an out,” Looper said. “You take that one outing out and my numbers are a lot better.”

That’s not to say Looper has been unhittable. In fact, he’s given up 28 hits in 251/3 innings with only 11 strikeouts, but most of the hits have been ground balls. Looper put himself in a tough spot Tuesday night against the Phillies when he hit a batter and gave up a hit to bring the tying run to the plate. That batter happened to be Bobby Abreu, who was batting .563 against him with four home runs. Looper got Abreu to ground out, though, to preserve the 8-5 victory.

Looper does not fit the image some have of closers of an eccentric wild man. He’s down to earth, popular in the clubhouse and tough to rattle. In his first year in New York, Looper did not surrender an earned run until May 21.

“I think he fits the role real well,” Mets starter Kris Benson said. “He definitely has a relaxed attitude, but when he gets out there he’s real focused. You don’t have to be crazy and do all sorts of crazy things to be a closer.”