MLB

Pelfrey, Mets wounded by Buck shot

MIAMI — Mike Pelfrey tried to do the kind of things aces do. He tried to keep the Mets in the game with his head as well as his arm, a smart decision if you consider the other notable arm in this game belonged to Josh Johnson, and it was starting to look like he might not allow a base hit if the game lasted until Easter Sunday.

“Every run is at a premium when you’re going up against a guy who led the National League in ERA,” Pelfrey would say. “I knew that from the first inning.”

So with second and third, one man out in the fourth inning, Pelfrey opted for an “unintentional intentional walk” instead of facing lefty-swinging Logan Morrison. Yes, that would load the bases. But it would also bring up John Buck, a big-swinging catcher who runs about as well as you would expect a big-swinging catcher to run.

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“I’m thinking better matchup,” Pelfrey said. “I’m thinking double play, get out of the inning, keep us even.”

In so many ways, Pelfrey’s quagmire reflected something the Mets are going to encounter time and again this season. They have good players; other teams have better players, and more of them. They have tried to eliminate the slapstick from their workaday existence, have injected more professionalism, and that will put them in position to win more games than normal.

It’s just that actually winning them isn’t quite that simple.

Pelfrey was getting the better of Buck in their confrontation. He was beating him with his fastball, fooling him with his sinker, but once he got two strikes on Buck, the Marlins catcher kept fouling off piches. Sometimes, the difference between a good pitcher and an ace is that simple: At his best, Johan Santana would get two strikes on a hitter and turn assassin. Johnson certainly was doing that last night.

“I kept battling and so did he,” Pelfrey said, and battling is good. Prevailing is better.

And so it was that Pelfrey served up a sinker that didn’t sink all that far, that hovered too long in the strike zone, too long to fool a guy like Buck, who hit 20 home runs last year, too long to keep the ball in the yard. In an eyeblink, it was 4-0. By night’s end, it was 6-2, and the Mets’ Opening Day winning streak was over at five, their season was underway at 0-1, and the immediate goal was to tip their caps to Johnson, which they did without much prompting.

“He was awfully good tonight,” David Wright said.

“A lot of teams are going to run into that,” manager Terry Collins said.

“He throws everything hard: his fastball, his cutter, his change-up,” said Willie Harris, the erstwhile Mets killer who on this night rescued them from the ignominy of an Opening Day no-hitter by lacing a double to lead off the seventh. “You have to be awfully good to beat him when he’s pitching like that.”

All of that is true, of course. And, sure: when blood is in the water – and it has flowed like chlorine around the Mets for a long time now – it’s easy to want to pounce. Want an interesting nugget? Back in 1999, the Mets lost Opening Day in Miami by the same score of 6-2. And the back page of everyone’s favorite newspaper greeted the Mets the next morning with this:

“$55 MILLION FLOP”

Ah, the innocent days of the ’90s, when $55 million was an entire payroll and losing to the Marlins was a call to tabloid arms. The Mets bounced back to win 97 of their next 162 games (including a one-game playoff), which should prove that time doesn’t expire on Opening Day (as should the fact that winning on Opening Day the last two years didn’t exactly propel the Mets to glorious things).

But this Mets team is a different animal. There really are no expectations anymore. In past years a fast start was critical to keep pace in the NL East; now it’s vital simply to keep New York’s attention beyond May Day. Like Pelfrey, the Mets really do seem to have good intentions right now. Good intentions are nice.

Good players, alas, are better.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com