Collins keeps faith in Flores

ATLANTA — Wilmer Flores had a rough Friday with the glove, but that didn’t stop Terry Collins from sending him right back out there on Saturday.

“He is going to play,” Collins said of Flores after the Mets’ 5-3 defeat Saturday night. “I am going to play Ruben (Tejada) tomorrow, but I knew going in Ruben was going to play on Sunday. I don’t think there is any set date (to judge how Flores is doing). I told him today, ‘Hey relax. Go play a game like you did in Florida. The thing I want you to understand is you are going to have good nights and bad, get over it and get ready to play the next day.’ ”

Flores, who made two errors on Friday, did not have any issues in the field on Saturday but he continued to struggle at the plate, going 0-for-2 with a walk. He is hitting .125 (2-for16) through the first five games.

The focus on Flores is intense because the Mets spent the winter looking to find an upgrade at the position through trades and free agency. When they came up empty, they said that Flores could handle the routine plays at shortstop, adding that his bat would outweigh any defensive liability.

While it’s a small sample size, there are some in the Mets organization who are concerned about his bat. “He’s not swinging well,” one Mets official observed.

Collins, however, said Saturday that he is not yet ready to talk to Flores about his hitting, pointing out that the Mets faced Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg in the first series.

“A lot of guys would be in a funk against those guys,” Collins said.

MIX IT UP, MONTERO

Pitching coach Dan Warthen and bullpen coach Ricky Bones sat down with Rafael Montero Saturday afternoon and talked about his pitch selection. The 24-year-old, who is learning to pitch in relief after being a starter in the minors, apparently threw 30 straight fastballs Friday night and the Braves took advantage of that — along with David Wright’s mental miscue — to break a tie with two runs in the eighth for a 5-3 win.

“You can’t throw 30 in a row. Part of it was an intentional walk, but you’ve got to show them something else,” Collins said. “These are big-league hitters. You can’t throw all those fastballs in a row without them getting a gauge. They have got to see and offspeed pitch. I know Dan and Ricky are dealing with it today. Hopefully it won’t happen again.”