MLB

Mets’ bats help Wheeler earn second win

MILWAUKEE — Zack Wheeler certainly struggled, but compared to some of the other slop that passed for baseball Friday night at Miller Park the rookie fireballer’s problems didn’t seem so bad.

With both teams (but mostly the Brewers) handling grounders and running the bases as if they had a few too many sips of Bernie’s Brew, the Mets overcame Wheeler’s command problems and rolled to a 12-5 victory in front of 32,519

Ike Davis, in his return to the big leagues after spending the last three weeks at Triple-A Las Vegas trying to fix his swing, finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs to help the Mets forget their 15-inning loss to the Diamondbacks a day earlier at Citi Field.

The Brewers demonstrated why they are the worst team in the NL Central, committing three errors to make life easier for this anemic Mets lineup. Kirk Nieuwenhuis finished 4-for-4 with two walks and five RBIs to lead the Mets’ 14-hit attack.

Wheeler (2-1) improved on his awful start against the Nationals last Sunday, but continued to struggle with location and work deep into counts. Overall, he lasted five innings and allowed three runs — two of which were unearned — on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

“I’m happy about my outing, even though there were some low points,” Wheeler said after throwing 98 pitches. “Falling behind, throwing 20 pitches an inning and only going five [innings], but I battled out there as best as I could and got a good result and that’s it.”

Wheeler pulled a great escape to survive the fifth with the Mets’ 7-3 lead intact. After loading the bases with one out, Wheeler got Jonathan Lucroy to pop out before Juan Francisco was caught watching a slider for strike three to end the inning.

“We certainly have to do a better job of coming up with some means that don’t get [Wheeler] in jams all the time,” manager Terry Collins said. “Because [98] pitches in five innings is a lot, and in the fifth he had to work out of a bases loaded jam, that’s why we took him out.

“What I did like tonight was he kept throwing his fastball. He kept throwing it and the more you throw it, the better you’re going to get at trying to locate it.”

Francisco’s homer leading off the fourth gave the Brewers their first earned run against Wheeler and cut the Mets’ lead to 7-3.

In the third, Wheeler had escaped trouble after Norichika Aoki was out at the plate trying to score as part of a double steal. Gomez swiped second on the play, as the throw was cut off by Daniel Murphy, who fired home to nail Aoki, who had doubled leading off.

Wheeler surrendered two unearned runs in the first after Daniel Murphy booted Segura’s grounder, putting runners on first and second. Gomez then doubled in a run, but Segura was thrown out at the plate also attempting to score. Gomez reached third on the play and scored on Ramirez’s ensuing sacrifice fly that made it 2-2.

“I just need to get ahead of hitters,” Wheeler said. “We definitely threw a lot of fastballs.”

Nieuwenhuis’ two-run single in the fourth extended the Mets’ lead to 7-2 and put them in firm control. In the sixth, John Buck’s RBI single got back a run after Francisco’s homer had sliced one from the lead.

The Mets used the shortstop Segura’s fielding error as a springboard to scoring three unearned runs in the second. Davis delivered a squib RBI single before Nieuwenhuis singled in two more runs.

mpuma@nypost.com