Anything possible for this gritty bunch

ST. LOUIS — Make room for these new Miracle Mets.

How else can you explain this? Because it’s kind of a miracle when they win, and by some miracle they are still in the wild-card hunt.

The Mets beat the Cardinals, 10-6, Thursday night at Busch Stadium to win two of three against St. Louis and move within 3 1/2 games of the Redbirds and the NL’s second wild card.

All this, despite another starting pitcher, Seth Lugo, who was filling in for the injured Steven Matz, having to leave the game early. Lugo exited after five scoreless innings with a calf cramp.

It’s the same injury that forced Jay Bruce to sit out again, but his replacement, Alejandro De Aza, lifted a three-run home run, drove in a career-high five runs and robbed Matt Carpenter of a possible home run in the first inning.

How great a trip was it for De Aza? He also had his diamond ear- ring and a gorgeous silver chain that he left in his San Francisco hotel room returned to him, he told The Post with a big smile.

“It was a great trip,’’ De Aza, who homered three times on the trip, said as the clubhouse emptied.

It turned out to be a good visit here, too for the Mets, who had only three starters in the lineup Thursday night who were in the Opening Day lineup — Yoenis Cespedes, Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera, and Cespedes has missed 27 games.

Alone in the visiting manager’s office after the game, I asked Terry Collins to put this season in perspective for both the manager and the Mets.

“It’s trying,’’ the baseball lifer said. “When you don’t have the pieces because they are not here, you have to understand that sometimes you’re asking guys to do things they are not ready to do. But that’s what you got, you can’t whine about it. I think you have to create opportunities, that’s all we can do.

“And then you say: Here’s your chance to be a big league player and stay a big league player,’’ Collins said.

Now the Mets have their chance to make a wild-card run.

They play 22 of their final 35 games against the lowly Phillies, Reds, Braves and Twins. The Mets have the rest of the league right where they want them. Unless, of course, they fall flat against those really bad teams. That would be a Mets thing to do.

Collins is managing to squeeze more out of his team than anyone expected.

Sure, there is a lot of mediocrity in baseball these days. The Cardinals are in possession of that second wild card, but they are not so hot. The Cardinal Way has given way to bad defense and bad baserunning.

The Mets (64-63) still have to make up much ground late in the year with the Marlins and Pirates ahead of them and then having to catch the Cardinals or Giants.nts.

All the young starters, except for Noah Syndergaard, are injured or in a terrible rut. Jacob deGrom has been so bad his past two starts that Collins is looking to get him extra rest.

Collins has kept a tremendously positive attitude through this entire mess of a season, which has been a big help. It was Collins, of course, who said in spring training that his team needed to get back to the World Series and win it — but that was a different team than the one Collins is managing now.

In their win Tuesday night, Collins had to use seven pitchers. In the sweaty victory Thursday night, he used six pitchers.

The Mets are hanging around. They survived the road trip. A miracle can still happen.