MEMO to Mets’ management: You’ve been beaten by the Braves for so long, so study them, emu late them, learn from them.

Forget about trying to beat them.

The Mets just don’t get it. They don’t know how to make the most of an opportunity, especially when it comes against Bobby Cox’s crew. Here were the Braves last night at Shea. Once again no Chipper Jones (not until tomorrow), a returning Tim Hudson who hadn’t pitched in more than a month, and a lot of fresh faces.

The Mets never had a chance as they came away 3-0 losers even though Victor Zambrano was again solid.

The Braves, no matter how young they get, just know how to win. The young Mets have yet to figure it out. The Braves have nine rookies on their 25-man roster. Rookie corner outfielders Kelly Johnson and Ryan Langerhans knocked in all three runs.

Here is your frightening statistic of the night: The loss dropped the Mets to 45-46. Last year’s Mets actually had a better record at this point in the season at 46-45.

Imagine that. All that winter tinkering and the Mets have a worse record than last season. Yes, the Mets added Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez on the free-agent front, but they stopped short of their needs. The inability to go out and get a big-time hitter has crippled the club.

There simply is not enough pop in this lineup. This shutout loss comes on the heels of a 2-1 defeat to the Braves on Friday night.

The Braves play the game right. On every level.

“You have to respect the organization,” Willie Randolph noted. “How they feed their organization, and bring kids up who are very polished and very fundamentally sound, that’s why they’ve been successful. They’ve got five or six young players out there now and they look like they’ve been around for a couple of years.”

Once again the Mets had no punch in their lineup.

Beltran has yet to produce the big numbers that were promised and a big reason for that is the leg injury he suffered in May. But Beltran is now healthy. At least he squeezed out one of the Mets’ six hits, a sixth-inning, two-out single, but that’s not enough.

Beltran has to be the Mets’ junior version of Alex Rodriguez. Beltran’s single was followed by a Cliff Floyd single to right that put runners on the corners, but David Wright grounded to short. End of rally. End of any hopes of the Mets scoring.

The fans are growing more frustrated with every Mets’ miscue. There were three errors last night and when reliever Danny Graves turned a Rafael Furcal bunt into a blooper reel lowlight in the eighth, leading to the Braves’ final run, the 36,073 fans rang down with boos.

It’s not easy being a Mets’ fan, especially when the Braves are the opponent.

The Mets may never figure it out against the Braves, who have won the last 13 division titles. The Braves, who have had all kinds of health issues this season, lead the season series, 9-3. They may not win the NL East, but they lead the wild card, too. They’re on their way to the playoffs again.

“We do have a lot of new faces around here this year,” Cox acknowledged, “but you know what, they’re great kids, they play hard, and they’ve been taught well.”

They play the game right.

Braves infielders ate up every hard hit ground ball and their outfielders ran down every liner. Hudson threw strikes. Over six innings only 19 pitches were balls. Six times the Braves got their leadoff hitter on base. They put pressure on the Mets all night.

Floyd has been around and knows it’s not that easy for young players to come in and perform so well. “Coxie said it’s amazing that he can just plug these guys in and just let them go play,” Floyd said.

That’s the Braves’ way. Some day, maybe, the Mets’ organization might be as productive.

Going backward

Despite all their offseason tinkering, the Mets are actually worse off through 91 games this season than they were in 2004. Here’s a look at the NL East standings after the games of July 18, 2004, when the Mets beat the Phillies 6-1 at Shea (with the win going to new Yankee Al Leiter), and today:

2004

TEAM W-L PCT GB

Braves 48-43 .527

Phillies 48-43 .527

Mets 46-45 .505 2

Marlins 45-46 .495 3

Expos 32-59 .352 16

2005

TEAM W-L PCT GB

Nationals 53-38 .582

Braves 52-40 .565 1 ½

*Marlins 45-43 .511 6 ½

*Phillies 46-45 .505 7

Mets 45-46 .495 8

*Before last night’s game.