MLB

Ankiel aboard, reshuffled Mets decked by Cards

ST. LOUIS — The rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic were a sight to behold yesterday with Rick Ankiel’s addition to the Mets, but this ship is still headed toward the bottom of the Atlantic.

Or at least for now, the Mississippi.

With Ankiel in the lineup and playing center field only hours after signing with the team, the Mets mustered all of four hits — and only one after the second inning — in a 6-3 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

The Mets (14-21) lost their fourth straight and made it seven consecutive games with three runs or fewer. Ankiel finished 0-for-3 in his Mets debut with two strikeouts and a walk.

The 33-year-old, whom the Astros released last week, is expected to share center-field duties with Juan Lagares, but the Mets have problems that go beyond their broken outfield.

The bullpen remains among those concerns after Scott Atchison surrendered a two-run homer to Matt Holliday in the seventh that gave the Cardinals a 6-3 lead and all but doomed the Mets. The go-ahead run had scored against Scott Rice (1-3) earlier in the inning.

“It was the right guys to be out there, it’s just we didn’t get it done,” manager Terry Collins said.

The go-ahead run in the seventh scored on a freak play: Matt Carpenter hit a shot off Rice’s foot that caromed into foul territory on the first-base side. John Buck retrieved the ball, but with nobody covering the plate, Ty Wigginton raced home from second to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.

Rice said he was trying to make a kick save on the play with the intention of deflecting the ball to an infielder.

“We’re in every game, we’re just a pitch or two away,” Rice said. “I think our luck is going to turn around.”

Moments earlier, Ankiel nearly made a diving catch on Wigginton’s bloop to center, but the ball jarred loose for a double.

“I just feel if I get a glove on it, I should catch it,” said Ankiel, who was using Jon Niese’s glove because his equipment hadn’t arrived.

“I don’t want to make excuses about the glove, but I do think if I have my glove it stays in there.”

The Mets wasted plenty of early opportunities against Lance Lynn before the right-hander built momentum in the middle innings. Overall he allowed four hits and five walks over seven innings, leaving with the game 3-3.

Jeremy Hefner gave the Mets a chance by allowing three runs on five hits and four walks over six innings. The righty rebounded from a shaky beginning to retire the last 10 batters he faced.

Carpenter’s RBI single in the second tied the game after the Mets had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the inning. But Hefner avoided further trouble by getting Holliday to hit into a double play with the bases loaded to end the inning.

“I wasn’t a Cardinals fan growing up, but I followed them closely and I had a lot of family in the stands,” said Hefner, an Oklahoma native.

“I think I was a little amped up and those first couple of innings I left a few pitches over the middle and calmed down the last four.”

Daniel Murphy’s two-run double was the Mets’ big hit in a three-run second inning. Ankiel’s initial at-bat in a Mets uniform ended in a walk to lead off the inning and Mike Baxter walked with one out before Murphy’s double — Carlos Beltran lost the ball in the sun — brought both runners home. David Wright followed with an infield RBI single that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead. The Mets didn’t get another hit until Murphy singled in the seventh.

“You look up tonight we had four hits and three of them by one guy [Murphy],” Collins said. “We’ve just got to start spreading out the hits throughout the lineup.”

mpuma@nypost.com

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