Mets 7

Marlins 4

Mo Vaughn had already heard all the rationalizations for the Mets’ 7-11 start.

How the season was still young. How the marathon had just started. How it was way too early to get riled up.

Vaughn had heard it all and he was tired of it. Which is why before yesterday’s 7-4 win over the Marlins at Shea, he said this struggling team needed to start getting it together.

“Right now is the time,” he said. “I don’t want to hear, ‘It’s only April.’ I don’t want to hear ‘It’s only three weeks.’ It’s urgent. It’s urgent NOW. It’s got to happen now.”

So there was some kind of baseball poetic justice when Vaughn came to the plate in the seventh inning, having already committed two errors, the latter allowing the Marlins to take a 3-2 lead just an inning earlier.

The bases were loaded now, the Mets had scratched out a couple runs for a 4-3 lead and Vaughn had a chance to both earn redemption and back up his pregame words. Recalling the situation, Vaughn later said, “Those are the times you really want to hit.”

With a 3-2 count, Vaughn tagged Michael Tejera’s fastball right up the middle for a two-run single and a 6-3 lead. As he reached first, Vaughn clapped his hands repeatedly as the Shea crowd roared.

“The biggest hit of the game,” Vance Wilson said.

“That was the one that broke the game right open,” said manager Art Howe.

The win gave Howe his 1,000th career victory and allowed the Mets to take their second straight series, but more importantly, it was also a mental triumph for a team in dire need of one.

Especially after Saturday’s gut-wrenching defeat when the Marlins tagged Armando Benitez for two ninth-inning runs.

“It’s big for the psyche of the team more than anything else,” said Tom Glavine, who provided seven innings of three-run pitching.

Not that Vaughn and Glavine were solely responsible for the Mets’ second come-from-behind win of the weekend. In fact, it wouldn’t have happened without a collection of unlikely heroes.

There was Wilson, subbing for Mike Piazza, belting a seventh-inning solo homer that tied the game at 3-3.

There was Rey Sanchez, mired in a 1-for-25 slump, rapping two singles and scoring two runs.

There was Roger Cedeno, booed relentlessly all weekend, scratching out two infield hits, each of which drove in a run. The second one was a nubbed dribbler just a few feet off the plate that scored Sanchez to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.

“That’s the makeup of these guys,” Howe said. “There’s great character in that [locker] room.”

With the game tied at 2-2 in the sixth and Pudge Rodriguez on first, Glavine caught the Marlins catcher leaning and fired to Vaughn. When Rodriguez broke for second, Vaughn’s throw zipped into left field. Rodriguez then scored after Alex Gonzalez won an 11-pitch battle with Glavine and lined an RBI single.

But that just sparked the Mets’ seventh-inning rally. After Wilson tied it with his shot just above the to left, Sanchez singled and Glavine reached when his sacrifice bunt was mishandled by Florida reliever Vladimir Nunez. Robbie Alomar bunted both runners up, Cedeno’s nubber brought in Sanchez and Ty Wigginton walked to load the bases.

That brought up Vaughn and he delivered. It’s not urgent in April? Don’t tell that to him.