MLB

PEL ON HIS WAY

PORT ST. LUCIE – Mike Pelfrey’s advancement was praised by Paul Lo Duca yesterday.

“He’s making big strides,” the Mets catcher said. “He threw the ball really, really well today, and he’s growing up a lot.”

Lo Duca caught Pelfrey in yesterday’s 5-2 loss to the Dodgers, which was the 2007 spring debut for the Mets’ top pitching prospect. Pelfrey was superb on the hill, hurling two scoreless innings and facing the minimum number of Dodgers hitters.

Pelfrey was impressive in a number of ways. He needed just 21 pitches in his two frames. He said he recorded groundouts on both sliders he threw (to Russell Martin and Olmedo Saenz) and reached 95 mph in the opening inning.

Lo Duca said he believes the 23-year-old is ready.

“From what I saw today, I think so,” Lo Duca said. “He still needs to work on some things and he still needs to get better. He knows that. But he’s heading in the right direction.”

Pelfrey recorded five of his six outs on the ground, including an inning-ending double play in the second. After a perfect first inning, Pelfrey surrendered a one-out single to Andy LaRoche, but got Matt Kemp on a 92-mph fastball to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

After the inning, Lo Duca talked to Pelfrey, and the two walked off the field together. According to the pitcher, Lo Duca wanted him to throw the first pitch to Kemp more naturally or loosely.

“I know he had just gone to the stretch,” Lo Duca said, “and I wanted him to give me what he’s got, and I think he just got a little passive on that one pitch.”

Pelfrey, the Mets’ top draft pick from 2005, is among the contenders for the rotation. But he may have a very difficult time making it. The guess here is that John Maine, Oliver Perez and Chan Ho Park will fill out the staff behind Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez, so Pelfrey may need to be outstanding in camp to beat them out.

“You think about it,” Pelfrey said of earning the last spot in the rotation. “But you can’t let that stuff bother you. You just try to go out and get better every day and just continue to work on the things that I need to work on, which is the secondary stuff and command of my fastball, and in the end, I don’t make that decision. So I’m just going out and doing the best I can and let them make the decision.”

Lo Duca, who said Pelfrey owns “as good stuff as I’ve ever caught,” said the pitcher is so much better than last season for multiple reasons.

“I think a little of everything,” he said. “I think the experience in the big leagues might have helped him. He was a little erratic obviously when he came up. He had trouble throwing strikes. His bullpens here have been unbelievable, and he took it out to the game today, and if he throws like that every day, he’s going to be a big-time pitcher.”

Billy Wagner said he doesn’t believe he can tell whether Pelfrey is ready. But he does see a difference from last season.

“I just think there’s not that deer-in-the-headlights look,” Wagner said. “Because when you first get called up, and pretty much they’re saying, ‘Well, the season rests on you.’ He was just, ‘OK, I’m here.’ But he doesn’t know what he’s doing. . . . Mentally, he was probably not ready for that opportunity, but his talent is overwhelming, and now he’s gotten a lot more mature and I think he understands what the purpose of being here is. It’s not for him just to pitch and get paid. It’s to pitch and win championships.”

mark.hale@nypost.com