Mike Piazza is out. Cliff Floyd is out. Jose Reyes is out. Karim Garcia is out.

And the Mets somehow have won three of their last four games.

OK, that’s a little misleading; of the four players, only Reyes missed every game. Floyd and Garcia missed two each, and Piazza missed one.

The point is, the 4-3 Mets haven’t missed a beat without their Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 7 hitters. The bench picked up some of the slack, and Kaz Matsui and Mike Cameron continued their torrid starts, but the main reason behind the recent surge has been the starting pitching. Check the numbers: Over the past four games, Mets starters threw 24 innings. They’ve allowed one earned run. That’s an 0.38 ERA.

“If our starting pitching does well,” Jason Phillips said, “the whole team feeds off that.”

Tonight’s starter, Tyler Yates, got the Mets going last Friday when he tossed six scoreless innings against Montreal in his major-league debut. Al Leiter followed Saturday with five shutout frames, and Tom Glavine continued Sunday in San Juan with seven innings of no-earned run ball (he allowed one unearned).

Monday, the team was back home and the result was the same. Steve Trachsel started and gave up one earned run over six innings.

Not including Dan Wheeler’s spot start for Scott Erickson, Mets pitching was terrific in the season’s first week. The four top starters – Glavine, Trachsel, Leiter, Yates – are a combined 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA.

“I think that’s going to be our backbone,” Trachsel said of the starting pitching. “It’s that way for most teams. If we go out and execute, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

Glavine, who’s off to a strong 2-0 start with a 1.38 ERA, said, “That’s what we need to do. I’ve been saying that since day one of spring training this year, that if you get good pitching and good defense, you feel like you’ve got a chance to win every day.

“And that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re playing good defense, we’re getting great pitching and you come to the ballpark with that feeling of, all right, we’re going to win tonight.”

With the pitchers delivering, Mets hitters haven’t felt the need to put up seven or eight runs every night.

That’s been particularly important, considering half the lineup is banged up or on the disabled list. Other hitters – Phillips and Ty Wigginton, in particular – still haven’t found their batting grooves yet.

“It gives us the chance, for some guys like myself that aren’t swinging the bat particularly well, to not be up stressing for that one run all the time,” Phillips said.

Glavine said he believed hitters can perform better when they know they don’t have to. The reason? Less pressure.

“I think a side effect [of the strong pitching] is you don’t put your offense in a spot where they feel like they’ve got to score a ton of runs to give you a chance to win,” he said. “Now those guys are relaxed because we’re doing what we need to be doing and the defense is doing their thing and they’re scoring runs.”

And the Mets are winning games.

Pitching in

Tyler Yates will pitch tonight for the Mets, trying to extend an excellent four-game run during which their starting pitchers have allowed one earned run. Here’s a look at those performances:

Date Starter IP H R ER BB K Result

Monday Trachsel 6 4 1 1 2 3 Def. Braves, 10-6

Sunday Glavine 7 5 1 0 1 1 Def. Expos, 4-1

Saturday Leiter 5 3 0 0 1 4 Lost to Expos, 1-0

Friday Yates 6 5 0 0 0 4 Def. Expos, 3-2

TOTALS 24 17 2 1 4 12 3-1, 0.38 ERA

Tonight

Braves at Mets

7:00, MSG, WFAN (660)

Thomson (0-0, 3.60)

Vs. Yates (0-0, 0.00)