CUB CLUBS MATZ

RIZZO’S THREE-RUN HOMER ENDS METS’ DOMINANCE

CHICAGO — The strange thing is this: Every day, before he fills out his lineup card, Terry Collins has to spread out names in his mind like Scrabble letters. The narrative is this: he has too many players he wants to use, and too few places in the lineup to use them. In baseball, that is supposed to be a “good problem.”

With these Mets, there is nothing good about it. It is simply a problem. Before the Mets absorbed a thorough 5-1 pounding from the Cubs at Wrigley Field Monday night, Collins talked about his crowded outfield, and he sounded just as flummoxed as he did a few weeks ago when Jose Reyes arrived and crowded up his infield.

He was asked: “Are there times you quietly envy American League managers who have the designated hitter at their disposal every day?”

And this was the answer, with a smile crawling on his face: “Very true.”

This was the augmented answer: “You’ll have my vote for it the next time.”

Here’s the thing, though: the Mets have entered that portion of the season where the equation ought to be simpler than whatever basic logarithm Collins is employing right now.

At this point of the season, the Mets simply need wins, piles of wins, strung-together wins, and those aren’t going to come easily when every few days — or every other day — the Mets’ offense stumbles into the freezer. No offense to Jon Lester, who pitched a gem Monday night, but the Mets did pound him for about 30 runs the last time they faced him a few weeks ago.

You may remember Wilmer Flores cracked two home runs that day. You may have noticed Flores hit another one off Lester Monday night, accounting for the Mets’ only run, and he added a single in the second, this af- ter essentially spending the past few weeks in witness protection.

Now look: It’s silly to get carried away and say a Mets renaissance would be as simple as writing Wilmer Flores’ name on the lineup card every day. Flores may be a wildly popular player among Mets fans, and he has had his share of dramatic moments the last two years, but he isn’t the sole answer to what ails the Mets.

But he represents what does. He represents what Collins himself has tried to institute at various times the past two seasons as his mantra and his credo: The hot guy plays, the cold guys sit. And when the cold guys heat up again, they play. Simple stuff. Yet as often as he has cited that as the way he wants to conduct business, the fact is he hasn’t bought into it at all. Reyes has played every single game since he arrived, and while he has been OK, he has yet to be confused for his 2006 self. Neil Walker re- mains a steady presence at second base, even as his average has dipped below .250. Asdrubal Cabrera hasn’t had a hit with a man in scoring position since May 23 — May 23! — a stretch of 56 days and 28 at-bats.

Nobody is suggesting any of those guys should be benched. But if you’re committed to hot hands, then there is little excuse for giving Flores — who certainly WAS hot — seven at-bats in the six games leading up to Monday.

And now things only get more complicated, as Collins tries to figure out how to fill out his outfield every day now that his every-day center fielder, Yoenis Cespedes, wants to stop playing center field and instead wants to play left, the preferred position of the kid hitter (Michael Conforto) who the Mets hope turned his career around in Las Vegas.

So you’re left to also pick among one of the very best defensive center fielders in Juan Lagares, who is still too inconsistent a hitter, and Curtis Granderson, a gamer and a team leader who still sports the impossible-to-believe-it’s-not-a-typo stat line of 16 homers and 28 RBIs. Same rules should apply here, of course, hot hand plays. But what if Cespedes is the fourth-hottest hand? And what if it’s Lagares? Who plays center field? Can you just leave it blank?

These are questions that Collins needs to rectify soon, because the Mets wake up Tuesday morning officially on the outside looking in on the playoff picture thanks to Miami’s comeback win in Philly Monday night.

In itself that isn’t devastating news — yet. But the Mets have to figure this out quick, and it’s Collins who has to do the figuring. He’d be wise to follow his own instinct. Keep it simple. Don’t overthink it. Go with the hot hand. Even if that hand doesn’t necessarily belong to the player you wish it did.