Wild week for Collins & Co.

MIAMI — This was a week designed to be ground through, withstood. It was right that in the end it was Dee Gordon with the bat in his hand, and Dee Gordon who would accept a line of handshakes and hugs on his way back to the dugout after grounding out, first by home-plate umpire Bill Welke, then by Terry Collins.

“This week,” Collins said, “is a week you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Ever.”

He was referring to the Marlins, of course, who lost their teammate and friend Jose Fernandez, who had to play these games with heavy hearts, and who will gather to bury him Thursday afternoon.

But it wasn’t easy for the Mets, either. It’s terrible when real life intrudes, but it always does. The games were played, and had to be won. The Mets won two out of three. They won 5-2 Wednesday night because Seth Lugo continues to amaze, because Jay Bruce continues to provide clues he has emerged from his fugue state, because they simply are better than the Marlins right now.

“We have a special group of guys,” Collins said. “Respectful of the game, respectful of the people who play it. We tried to make as much of a tribute for Jose as we could but we also had to play games that were meaningful for us, too.”

Now come some meaningful decisions, playoff strategies that need to be put into place before those playoffs are even clinched — though some huge help arrived an hour after their game ended, the Reds beating the Cardinals 2-1, reducing the Mets’ magic number for clinching a playoff spot to two.

That’s the difference between actually working for a team that’s in a pennant race and simply rooting for one, no matter how passionately, no matter how much you maybe invested: What you call a jinx, they call a job. Such a situation calls for modifiers among fans, of course. It’s like actually saying the words “no-hitter” during a no-hitter. You know intellectually you have zero impact on the outcome of the game, but you still feel guilty if your off-the-cuff observations happen to impact the game.

And there is this: Mets fans have learned some hard lessons in the past, starting in 1998, extending to 2007, and then to 2008. The moment you find yourself actually looking forward to playoffs that haven’t yet been wrapped up is the moment that neat wrapping tends to unravel. Or so goes a sports fan’s thinking.

But these are critical days approaching, and the Mets have to tend to their business, and plan things as if they already have had their champagne celebration.

“We’ve tried to run over all the scenarios,” Collins said before the game. Collins knows there is one question that burns brightest:

“What if Sunday comes,” he said, “and we’re in but still playing for a playoff game.”

There was a time, of course, when this would have been a lot different thought process, back when the Mets had a rotation stuffed with studs and aces-inwaiting. Then, it really would have only been a matter of massaging egos; who gets the play-in? Who gets the first call that night? Who gets a potential Game 1 in the NLDS?

Now, it’s all about Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon (and two days of bemoan). Collins suggested Colon — whose Monday start was cut short by ineffectiveness — could get the ball in Philadelphia on Friday on short rest, which would certainly reflect the urgency of the situation.

More important: Collins said he likely was to start Syndergaard Sunday regardless of where the Mets sit in the race, if only to give him two innings and 25 pitches to stay sharp rather than pitching a win-or-gohome game on eight days’ rest. Which is a smart and savvy decision (and one Collins is hoping to employ, since it will mean the days between here and Sunday have gone as well as possible).

The Mets’ brain trust had started to toy with what they would do in the event of the whacky three-way tie scenarios, but Collins said that talk was limited to back home, before coming to Miami, where most of the team’s off-field thought have been preoccupied with Fernandez. Many of the Mets players attended a memorial service held for the late Marlins pitcher Wednesday.

Collins also was quick to defend the looming necessity of having to pitch Lugo and Robert Gsellman, if necessary, if the Mets reach the NLDS, which, of course, is what the franchise’s ultimate hope is.

“Somebody has to step up and pitch well,” Collins said. “Why can’t it be our guy?”

So far, it has been. So far, in this stretch run with three games remaining, it’s been about almost all of their guys.