PHILADELPHIA – There are five Met starters, and through the season’s first 70 games, it’s an easy evaluation.

One starter, Pedro Martinez, has pitched brilliantly. Two starters, Kris Benson (6-2, 3.90 ERA) and Victor Zambrano (2.77 ERA in his last six starts), have pitched well. One, Tom Glavine, has been up and down but better of late.

The fifth, Kaz Ishii, has been a mess.

Ishii heads into this afternoon’s start against the Phillies with a 1-6 record and a 5.40 ERA. Manager Willie Randolph has been asked several times recently about replacing the struggling Ishii with the scorching Aaron Heilman, but Randolph has stayed faithful to Ishii. However, after Ishii’s last start last Friday, in which he gave up three earned runs (five overall) in 5 2/3 innings, Randolph was asked if he was still committed to Ishii in the rotation.

“As of now, yes,” Randolph said that night.

It was perhaps an indication that Randolph was easing up on his confidence in Ishii. But yesterday, Randolph insisted that the southpaw would still not face any extra pressure or scrutiny when he takes the mound today.

“No, not necessarily. No, I wouldn’t say so,” Randolph said. “I’m just going to go by what I see and what I feel. But no, it’s not like some type of audition or deadline or something like that. Or some type of do-or-die. No, nothing like that at all.”

It seems, though, that it probably should be. Heading into yesterday, there were 55 NL pitchers who qualified for the ERA rankings. Ishii, who has only made nine starts and pitched 53 1/3 innings, was not listed. But had he been, his 5.40 ERA would have ranked him 50th.

Ishii also has not been showing much progress. His ERA in June so far is 6.62.

Asked if Ishii needs to start producing results to stay in the rotation or whether he essentially has immunity, the manager did say, “No, no one has immunity. No, nothing like that.

“He hasn’t pitched that bad really. He has that one bad inning. He’s kind of like a Zambrano in a way. They seem to have one inning or two where they just kind of just can’t seem to get back in the groove. But he threw well up to that point.

“But listen, everyone needs to compete and play well. No one has a free pass. He needs to continue to do well and I’m hoping that he will. [It’d] be nice to keep him in the rotation and stuff and I’m sure he will stay, but no, no one has a free pass. Nothing like that.”

Ishii’s history vs. Philly is not encouraging either. He is 0-3 with a 7.40 ERA against the Phils lifetime, and he’s 0-2

with a 6.35 ERA against them in Citizens Bank Park. In his one start against them this year (which came April 18 in Philly), Ishii allowed five runs in five innings on six hits and six walks.

Ishii does have dominant stretches at times – he’s had three lights-out starts, for example, and on June 10 against the Angels, he threw five scoreless innings before giving up five runs in the sixth.

“Obviously, it’s a little bit puzzling at times when he pitches real good and then he kind of falls out a little bit,” Randolph said.

Still, Randolph talked mostly positives about Ishii yesterday, noting, “For the most part, I’ve been pretty pleased with overall the way he’s thrown.”

And at least for now, it sounds as if Ishii will keep throwing in the rotation.

—

Who’s No. 5?

Mets’ top four starting pitchers are pretty much set – Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Victor Zambrano and Kris Benson. But the fifth starting spot has been subject of debate. Here’s a comparison of current No. 5 starter Kaz Ishii with Aaron Heilman, who has been relegated to bullpen duties of late:

G GS IP CG SO K BB ER ERA Record

Heilman 19 7 58.1 1 1 52 15 22 3.39 3-3

Ishii 9 9 53.1 0 0 34 26 36 5.40 1-6