MIAMI — With three big swings, Cody Ross upstaged teammate Anibal Sanchez.

Ross tied Florida records with three home runs and seven RBIs, while Sanchez — in his first start since pitching a no-hitter last week — allowed four hits and struck out eight in seven innings as the Marlins beat the Mets 16–5 last night.

Dan Uggla was a career-best 5-for-5 with three runs, Ross finished with four hits and Miguel Cabrera took over the NL batting lead plus drove in three runs for the Marlins, who had a seasonhigh 20 hits.

The Marlins, 17–5 since August 20, moved within two games of idle San Diego in the NL wild-card race.

Carlos Beltran hit his 40th home run and Cliff Floyd added a two-run drive for the Mets, whose magic number for clinching the NL East title for the first time since 1988 remained at four.

Sanchez (8–2), unbeaten in his last seven starts, saw his bid to match Johnny Vander Meer’s feat of throwing consecutive no-hitters end on Floyd’s second-inning homer.

But by then, the Marlins had four runs — and they never stopped rolling.

Ross, who came into the game with nine homers this season, hit a three-run shot in the first inning, then added tworun homers in the sixth and seventh. He tied Mike Lowell’s franchise mark for homers in a game and became the third Marlins player to have seven RBIs — the first since Gary Sheffield in 1995.

Ross entered yesterday with one home run in his last 87 at-bats, dating to July 25 — when he hit two home runs against Atlanta. He was replaced in right field by Joe Borchard in the top of the eighth inning, as many who remained in the crowd of about 13,000 chanted “Co-dy! Co-dy!”

Florida had six players with at least two hits, including Sanchez — who even drove in a run.

Cabrera went 2-for-3 and improved his average to .340 — one point ahead of Pittsburgh’s Freddy Sanchez, who was 1-for-4 in the Pirates’ 4-2 win over Milwaukee.

Mets starter Dave Williams (5–4) lasted only three-plus innings, giving up nine earned runs and 11 hits — with both of Sanchez’s singles, including a run-scoring hit in the third, among them.

Ross’ three-run homer highlighted Florida’s four-run first. Cabrera had a two-run double in the second, an inning that Williams could have been out of if shortstop Jose Reyes didn’t bobble a potential double-play ball.Sanchez’s single pushed the lead to 7-2 in the third, then Uggla led off the fourth with a homer.

And, unlike Sanchez, Uggla matched a 68-year-old major league record.

His homer was no. 24 on the season, tying the Yankees’ Joe Gordon for the most by a rookie second baseman. Gordon set that mark in 1938, the same year Vander Meer threw his two gems.

Lastings Milledge and Carlos Delgado had RBIs in the eighth for the Mets, who have lost five of nine.

Notes: Uggla’s five-hit game was the first for a Marlins player this season, and the ninth in franchise history. … Florida Atlantic football coach Howard Schnellenberger tossed one of the ceremonial first pitches. The Mets lost for only the 29th time in 70 road games this season.