A year ago, the Mets inability to capture a wild-card playoff bid and win more than 88 games could be traced directly to their paltry performance against some of the National League’s weaker teams. Count the Marlins in that group, as the Mets went only 7-5 against a Florida team that managed to win a mere 54 games all season.

The opportunity for payback is immediate for this year’s Mets, who are 6-2 thus far and already 3-1 against the Marlins. Yes, it does appear that Florida, off to a 2-5 start, is headed for another dismal season, but is also might be that the Marlins aren’t truly awful, but that they simply cannot handle the Mets.

“They’re good … they are GOOD,” Marlins manager John Boles said yesterday, after the Mets enjoyed a convincing 8-1 victory in the Shea Stadium opener. “They’ve got a lot of ways to hurt you. They got power, they’ve got some guys who can run. Yeah, they’re good. We have to play letter-perfect, particularly against a team asgood as the Mets.”

The Marlins were far from perfect, as their team-wide battling slump continued and their batting average dropped to .224 after scratching together only five hits against Bobby Jones, Turk Wendell and Rigo Beltran. They could have had three more hits and presumably a few more runs if not for Mets third baseman Robin Ventura, who robbed speedy leadoff hitter Luis Castillo of three hits, twice charging in to field perfect bunts and once making a backhand catch pressed against the railing to prevent a foul popup from landing in the seats. As impressed as the Marlins seem to be with the Mets, they are nearly fainting at what Ventura did to them with his glove.

“Anything we could have done Ventura snuffed,” Boles said. “He’s the only third baseman in the league who makes those plays [on the bunts]. He’s some kind of special player. Any chance we had for any kind of rally he kind of defensed us right out of it.”