Matt now must get with the program

ST. LOUIS — Life is a work in progress. Right now Matt Harvey’s ego is deeply bruised.

So much so that Harvey declined to talk to the media after the Mets pulled off another stunning come-from-behind win, a 6-5, 10-inning victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium on the strength of Jay Bruce’s two-out home run to dead center in the top of the 10th to make a winner out of reliever Robert Gsellman.

Harvey, who has been demoted to the bullpen by Mickey Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland, came into a tie game in the fifth, surrendered a pair of two-out doubles to lose the lead and then made it through the sixth, the first real bullpen work of his career after 104 starts with the Mets.

You could see Harvey’s displeasure simply in the way he walked out to join his teammates for pregame stretch. He was there, but he really wasn’t.

The right-hander got two quick outs in the fifth but gave up wicked back-to-back doubles to Dexter Fowler and Paul DeJong on flat fastballs, the difference between what once was 97 mph and is now 93 as the Cardinals took a 5-4 lead.

Harvey’s teammates, though, came back to tie the game in the eighth on an Adrian Gonzalez sacrifice fly against 100 mph man Jordan Hicks.

Then came Bruce’s heroics, boosting the Mets to their 10th comeback win of the year. Can Harvey come back? For Harvey to get back to the starting rotation — the Mets’ rotation or anyone else’s — he needs to prove he can be aggressive and throw strikes that will not be pounded.

First he has to accept his new role. Be where your feet are.

The Dark Knight and his 5.87 ERA can rise again but he must want to rise. He must first accept this bullpen challenge.

Callaway offered encouraging words for Harvey after the win.

“He was out there challenging hitters and attacking,’’ he said.

Asked if Harvey is accepting this role, Callaway said, “I do. There’s no doubt that tonight he went out there and just attacked and was trying to help the team. He’s manned up and he is going to go do the job.’’

Harvey did not talk about the job, telling a Mets spokesman he would not talk to the media on this night. Perhaps he is still in starter’s mode when he basically talked once every five days.

Zack Wheeler was the starter and gave up four runs over four innings but the Mets came back to tie it on a three-run, 463-foot Yoenis Cespedes bomb beyond Big Mac Land in left in the fifth.

If Harvey is salvageable he’s salvageable. Figure it out like Seth Lugo and Gsellman figured it out. Harvey has entered the NC zone: No Coddling zone.

Harvey can’t talk his way back into the rotation like he talked his way back out on the mound in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series with Terry Collins.

Callaway said Harvey received the same message that Lugo and Gsellman got when they went to the bullpen.

“I think everybody should know we are not just going to hand out starting jobs because you are a starter,’’ Callaway said. “You have to go out and get the job done and I don’t think there is anything wrong with having that pressure on you because there’s going to come a time where if we do something special and get where we want to get, the pressure is going to be really bad. If you can’t handle making starts because there are other people that can start, how are you going to pitch in the playoffs and win us a game?’’ Strong words. “It makes you a better player and it makes you a better person in the long run,’’ Callaway said.

As Eiland noted, “We are here to win ballgames. This may be the best thing for Matt.’’

It is about performance now, not history or future free agency. Matt Harvey needs to be where his feet are from this day forward. And that is only the first step.