The imperfect team played just the type of near-perfect game that’s required for victory. With a complete game from Johan Santana, three hits from Carlos Beltran, two hits from Jose Reyes and no strikeouts from David Wright (who wasn’t in the lineup), that’s baseball; no more and no less.
Yesterday’s 4-0 triumph over the Rockies gave the Mets two out of three in the series before the Phillies come to Queens tonight for three this weekend. But it was not a referendum on Francisco Rodriguez, the relief pitcher who spent Wednesday night and much of yesterday in a Citi Field holding cell prior to his arraignment in a Queens courthouse on a charge of third-degree assault.
It was not a referendum on Jerry Manuel’s bizarre pregame proclamation that he would not hesitate to use Rodriguez in the game if the closer became available. That regrettable statement was delivered approximately 90 minutes before the club announced via a press release that K-Rod had essentially been suspended for two days by being placed on the restricted list.
Out of sight, out of the bullpen and perhaps out of his mind, Rodriguez nevertheless was the primary topic of conversation in the clubhouse before and after Santana delivered a four-hit masterpiece during which he struck out 10 Rockies, with nine going down on changeups.
The players for the most part issued brief statements of “100 percent” support for Rodriguez, even while noting they had no idea at all what had happened in the team’s family room the previous night, when the closer sent the father of his girlfriend to the hospital in the altercation that led to his arrest.
Only Beltran, an adult, deviated from the party line, stating that he was, “disappointed that it happened here at the ballpark, in the family room,” before adding, “at the same time, he’s our closer [so] we have to support our guy.”
Performance on the field is the best support one teammate can give to another. If the Mets think that wrapping their arms around K-Rod is going to endear either him or them to the paying customers, they should think again.
The only way this team can maintain or regain support from the fans is by putting together a stretch of good baseball. A return to a semblance of form by Beltran, who came into the game on a 1-for-20 skid, gives the Mets their best opportunity to do that.
On Wednesday, after a Beltran 0-for-4, Manuel said the Mets “have to live with him, because we don’t have anything solid [as an alternative].
“You have to go with history, and if a player has a history of being a good hitter, you have to give him every opportunity to do that.”
Beltran yesterday drove in a first-inning run with a sacrifice fly the opposite way to left, ripped a fourth-inning single to right, beat out a sixth-inning single to second and then slashed an eighth-inning single to left. What’s more, he looked spry in center field, notably getting a great break to put away Ryan Spilborghs’ third-inning drive to left-center with ease.
“I still feel like I’m battling; I don’t feel comfortable [at the plate],” Beltran said. “I still feel like I’m fighting on every single at-bat, but the difference is that I got results, and results help your confidence.”
Jose Reyes played a snappy game, taking second on a balk after a seventh-inning single and then stealing third on the next pitch before coming home on Fernando Martinez’s sac fly for the Mets’ final run.
Santana was indomitable, determined from the first pitch to the 115th and last to go the distance.
“Every time we go out there with the mentality to win,” said Santana, 5-1 with a 1.88 ERA since July 1 in nine starts, including seven in which he has allowed one run or fewer. “This game was not any different.”
Oh yes it was. This game was nearly perfect.
larry.brooks@nypost.com