MIAMI — The Mets were overmatched for an entire series against a bad team. Now they know how the Yankees felt last week.
Any lingering momentum from the Mets’ four-game Subway Series rampage officially went kaput with Sunday’s 11-6 loss to the Marlins that completed Miami’s three-game sweep.
“They get paid, too,” David Wright said when asked about losing three straight to the worst team in the major leagues. “We don’t have much room to talk ourselves, talking about, ‘We should beat this team or that team.’ There’s probably a lot of teams saying that about us right now.”
Matt Harvey wasn’t sharp, but still had a shot at the win until Scott Rice blew it with three runs allowed in the sixth. LaTroy Hawkins iced it by surrendering a three-run homer to Greg Dobbs in the eighth, sending the Mets (22-32) to a day off in Washington trying to remove the taste of bad fish from their palates.
In his shakiest start of the season, Harvey lasted five innings and surrendered four earned runs on 10 hits and two walks with five strikeouts. But the Marlins (16-41) also didn’t hit the ball particularly hard against Harvey, except for a booming two-run triple by Marcell Ozuna in the first inning.
“I didn’t execute my pitches very well and it was just one of those days where they found the holes,” Harvey said. “I didn’t feel like I was getting squared up that much, it was just a matter of it seemed if they needed a hit they were finding the holes and unfortunately it happened to me today.”
Rice entered with the Mets ahead 6-4 in the sixth and walked the bases loaded before Ozuna hit a two-run double to tie the game. Chris Coghlan’s ensuing RBI ground out put the Marlins ahead. Rice walked a fourth batter in the inning before he was yanked.
“I never want to go out there and not compete, and that’s what I feel like I did today,” said Rice, who has been the Mets’ most dependable reliever other than Bobby Parnell.
Manager Terry Collins said he stuck with Rice despite his wildness because the team was short in the bullpen, after using Robert Carson and Collin McHugh on Saturday – the latter was the starting pitcher. Collins also liked the idea of having the sinkerballer Rice pitching to Ozuna.
“That’s what [Rice] has gotten is ground balls, that’s been his whole game all year long,” Collins said. “He left a changeup up, and [Ozuna] hit it for a double. But I have no problem with having him pitch to Ozuna.”
The Mets wasted a comeback from a 4-1 deficit that included a two-run homer from Ike Davis, who finished 2-for-4 for his second multiple-hit game in his last four starts.
Davis’ RBI single in the fifth gave the Mets a 6-4 lead after Marlon Byrd had put the team ahead moments earlier. Byrd’s RBI single against Wade LeBlanc gave the Mets their first lead in the series.
“After we got the lead and they got it right back, that’s a deflating part of the game,” Collins said.
The Mets had tied the game in the fourth on Davis’ two-run homer that cleared the fence in deep right-center. The blast was Davis’ first since April 25, spanning 97 at-bats. Byrd walked against Kevin Slowey and scored on the Davis homer.
Omar Quintanilla homered in the third, after Lucas Duda had pulled the Mets within 4-1 with a blast leading off the second.
Ozuna’s two-run triple against Harvey was the big hit in the first inning, when the Marlins jumped to a 3-0 lead. Coghlan followed with a bloop RBI double that bounced off Quintanilla’s glove, before Harvey escaped further trouble by retiring the next two batters.
Ed Lucas’ RBI single in the second extended the Marlins’ lead to 4-1.
Wright said the Mets’ emotions have gone to the “opposite end” of the spectrum since leaving Yankee Stadium on Thursday.
“We’re not doing much right these last three days,” Wright said.
Collins will now try to rally the Mets for three games against the Nationals, beginning Tuesday, before heading home for a rematch series against the Marlins.
“This one was tough to take,” Collins said. “Certainly there were a lot of things unexpected today.”
mpuma@nypost.com