MLB

Time for Ollie to deliver — or go

PHOENIX — This should be the end of the line for Oliver Perez.

If he doesn’t help the Mets this time around, and they need plenty of help after last night’s 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field — he should be released. Eat the money and move on. The worst part of the Perez fiasco is he probably doesn’t understand he has been given nine pitching lives.

If the Mets have any courage as a team, this should be the end of the Perez Pitching Ponzi Scheme.

Or the beginning of his comeback, but that’s a long shot. Perez will be activated today, manager Jerry Manuel said last night.

Perez is in the second year of a three-year, $36 million contract. He will be the second lefty in the bullpen. That’s the job closest to the door.

“That’s a minimal type role,” Manuel noted.

The Mets have so many problems. Carlos Beltran is rusty in centerfield and that hurt starter R.A. Dickey. Beltran couldn’t catch up to Gerardo Parra’s game-changing, fourth-inning triple, taking the long way around as he still is getting up to major league speed.

There was no room for mistakes, because the bats were dead against Barry Enright, who was making just his fourth major league start. The Mets are 0-5 in games started by Beltran since his return.

This spring training in July is not a great idea.

“As soon as he hit that ball, I thought I was going to be able to make it, but it kept going and it went over my head,” said Beltran, who said he has no pain in his right knee.

The Mets have slipped 6½ games back of the Braves and frustration is beginning to show. As Alex Cora left the clubhouse he yelled in the direction of Mike Pelfrey’s locker because some reporters were joking with the right-hander.

Into all this comes Perez. Will the Mets have the courage to move on without Perez if he can’t do the job again? Probably not.

When it was mentioned to Perez that the Mets have given him a lot of money, and he was asked if he realizes that it’s time to start earning that money, he answered, “Right now I’m not thinking about the money, I’m just thinking about helping my team. When I’m wearing the uniform I feel that it’s an honor, and I want to do everything I can to help the team.”

Management has made it easy for Perez to survive, despite his terrible performance. Manuel said Perez could get a better job than the second lefty out of the pen, if he does a better job. When Manuel was asked if Perez understands he’s been given opportunity after opportunity, Manuel said, “That, I don’t know.”

Manuel said Perez must earn his way back to being trusted. Nothing on the mound, he said, will be given to Ollie.

“When you are in the middle of the pennant race you are just not going to give things out there, you’ve got to see things,” Manuel said. “If we don’t see anything, we have to react accordingly.”

No pitcher in baseball should be more motivated than Perez. He has been given so much and has produced so little. This is what the Mets have earned from Perez. He was 3-4 last season with a 6.82 ERA. This year he is 0-3 with a 6.28 ERA.

Considering the Perez payoff so far, the Wilpons might have been better off giving that money to Bernie Madoff, too. Perez said he is now here to help his teammates. He can do that by pitching well.

Perez said he was excited to be back in the majors, excited to be back with his teammates. He said his family is here for the series and good times were ahead.

That’s the way he should feel, of course, but it’s about delivering on the mound, something he has yet to do since he signed that monster contract.

Ollie, it’s time to show up, you’re way past due.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com