The Mets are finally playing like a real ballclub. Yesterday’s 7-3 win over the miserable San Francisco Giants was their sixth straight win, their eighth in their last 11, and left them just a game and a half behind Philadelphia in the National League East. Two weeks ago, as they entered a stretch of 12 straight games against the Yankees, Cardinals, and Phillies, it was pretty clear they were about to make or break their season. Amazingly — unbelievably, given how they’d been playing for more than a year — they may actually have made it.

Right now, the Mets’ greatest ally is the schedule. Tonight they begin a three-game set with the miserable Colorado Rockies, one of the three or four worst teams in baseball. After the All-Star break they’ll play 37 of their 67 remaining games against teams with records below .500, including 19 against last-place clubs. Of the 30 games against winning teams, 12 will be against Florida, the least-imposing winning team in baseball, and another eight will come against the Phillies, against whom they’ve played some of their best baseball this year. If the Mets want to atone for last year’s great collapse and the catastrophic beginning of this year, all they have to do is seize their opportunity.

They just may. Coincidence or not, the Mets have gone 14-9 since Willie Randolph was fired, with drastically improved play on both sides of the ball — the odd Jose Reyes snit-fit notwithstanding. Before the firing, the Mets were scoring 4.8 runs a game; since, they’re scoring 5.1. The pitching has improved even more, as the team was giving up 4.7 runs a game before Randolph and Rick Peterson were shown the door, and is giving up 4.3 since. That latter just might be sustainable; Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, and Mike Pelfrey improved immediately on Peterson’s departure, with the latter two visibly confident in a way they haven’t been all year. Correlation may not be causation, but if their young pitchers keep on trusting their stuff, this is a different team, and new pitching coach Dan Warthen will take the credit.

However well they’ve played of late, though, the same grievous flaws that put the Mets in a hole to begin with have not at all been solved. With yesterday’s wholly unsurprising news that Moises Alou will most likely miss the rest of the season to his torn hamstring, and Ryan Church’s continued neurological problems leaving his career at risk, the Mets have Fernando Tatis and Endy Chavez in the outfield corners. No matter how many clutch hits Tatis has come through with recently, this isn’t going to get it done over the second half. With reserve-class players starting at hitter’s positions in the outfield, with Luis Castillo on the disabled list (say what you will about his contract, but he gets on base), and with Brian Schneider starting behind the plate, the Mets are totally reliant on four hitters — Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgado.

The first three are fine players to rely on. Wright’s numbers are down a bit this year, but so is scoring in general. In context he’s having his usual year, and since June 17 he’s hitting .320 BA/.422 OBA/.587 SLG; Mets fans should be ashamed of themselves for not turning out enough votes to get him the last spot on the All-Star team. Reyes, not that he’s getting credit for it, is having his best season and has developed into a beast of a hitter. Beltran, meanwhile, having alternated between insanely hot and tepid streaks all year, is still a game-breaking player, and capable of playing at an MVP level the rest of the year. (You could argue he already is, when you account for defense.)

Delgado, of course, is not a player to rely on at all. He’s slugged .617 since Randolph’s firing and in a recent stretch scored in eight of nine games, which is all to the good, but counting on him to continue this sort of hitting would be the same kind of basic error that has left a $140 million team with half a lineup. The evidence of the last 18 months is that Delgado is, at 36, an average hitter who’s a threat to go long and has the odd hot streak in him. A winning team can carry a first baseman like that, but it’s a lot harder with players such as Schneider and Chavez in the lineup every day.

As readers like to remind me, the easiest solution would probably just be to sign disgraced slugger Barry Bonds. Even in diminished form, he’d fill the left field hole nicely, leaving the Mets to platoon Tatis and Chavez in right while enjoying whatever they happen to get out of Delgado. It’s not going to happen for any number of reasons, which is a shame. A few weeks ago, the Vegas line on this team making the playoffs was 9-2, and that was probably pushing it. They’re lucky to be where they are, and ought to do everything possible to make sure the last two weeks are the start of something, rather than a dead cat bounce.

tmarchman@nysun.com