The only thing uglier than the Mets’ quadruple-A lineup yesterday was their Triple-A — as in awful, awful, awful — starting pitching.
Tim Redding probably is one clunker away from losing his spot in the Mets’ rotation. How long before GM Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel start compiling a list of alternatives?
In a second straight brutal performance, Redding fell into an early hole against Florida and never recovered, as the Mets’ four-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt with a 7-3 loss at Citi Field.
The Mets’ have two losses in their last eight games, and Redding is the common denominator. Yesterday he allowed seven earned runs over four-plus innings after getting socked for six runs over 42⁄3 innings last Sunday at Boston.
Manuel didn’t exactly give Redding an endorsement afterward, when asked if the right-hander is on a long leash.
“It depends on if he’s as ineffective as he was today,” Manuel said. “There could be times when you give something up and still could have pretty good stuff, but the last two times he has been hit pretty good. He’ll get the ball again and we’ll see where he is.”
Redding (0-2, 9.20 ERA) said he had trouble locating his pitches and sometimes had to resort to just throwing the ball down the middle. He indicated that such lack of command can make a pitcher “intimidated” at times.
“Right now I’m going through a mechanical flaw, and you can’t be trying to battle through that during a game,” Redding said. “Today, it was just from the [start], the inability to get ahead of the hitters.”
Josh Johnson (4-1) continued his mastery of the Mets, limiting them to two runs on five hits and two walks over seven innings. In eight career starts against the Mets, the Marlins right-hander is 6-0 with a 2.05 ERA.
This one came on a day Manuel decided to rest Gary Sheffield, David Wright and even Friday night’s offensive hero, Omir Santos. On top of that, Carlos Beltran left the game after the fifth inning because of a stomach virus. The 6-8 spots in the batting order were occupied by Ramon Martinez (.150 average), Brian Schneider (.167) and Wilson Valdez (.200).
Johnson also battled a stomach virus, but managed to get the Marlins through seven innings. Of the active 43 pitchers with at least eight starts against the Mets, Johnson is the only one without a loss.
The Marlins broke the game open in the fifth on Jeremy Hermida’s three-run homer. That marked the end of Redding’s afternoon — the right-hander was booed as Manuel made the pitching change.
“[Redding] made some good pitches, but just made a lot of mistakes with location today,” Schneider said.
Redding had a rocky first inning in which he surrendered two runs on two hits and a walk. Chris Coghlan scored the game’s first run when Fernando Tatis, playing third base, misplayed Jorge Cantu’s grounder. Hermida’s ensuing RBI single gave Florida a second run.
The Mets got a run on Tatis’ RBI single in the first and another on Fernando Martinez’s RBI double in the fifth. Martinez had singled in the third inning for his first major league hit.
In the ninth, Angel Pagan’s RBI double scored the Mets’ final run. But with the tying run on deck, Leo Nunez struck out the rookie Martinez to end the game.
“What we have to do in games like this is we really have to match their pitching,” Manuel said. “In a situation where you’re trying to give some position players a breather, you need the pitching to be what it has been.”
mpuma@nypost.com