DENVER – Jeff Francis pitched into the seventh inning and Dustan Mohr homered, lifting the Colorado Rockies to a 4-3 victory over the Mets last night.

The Rockies played without All- Star first baseman Todd Helton, who strained a calf muscle running the bases Monday against the Mets. He was replaced by Ryan Shealy, who arrived an hour before the game after flying in from Round Rock, Texas, where Triple-A Colorado Springs was playing.

The late arrival didn’t seem to bother Shealy. He had a run-scoring single in Colorado’s three-run third inning and made a tough stop on a one-hopper by Cliff Floyd to start an inning ending double play in the sixth.

New York’s David Wright had three hits, including his 15th homer, to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. Mets starter Kazuhisa Ishii (3-9) pitched well enough to win, but couldn’t overcome an error by first baseman Chris Woodward that led to three runs in the third inning.

Ishii also didn’t get much help from New York’s offense.

The Mets scored 48 runs in seven games before arriving in Colorado for a three-game series, but have managed just five runs and 15 hits – nine last night – in their first two games this season at baseball’s highest-scoring ballpark. New York has lost two straight to the last-place Rockies after winning five of seven.

Francis (9-7) had something to do with it on an unusually cool night in the Mile High City.

Using his changeup to keep the Mets off balance, the left-hander gave up a run in the third inning on Jose Reyes’s infield single – shortstop Anderson Machado had trouble getting the ball out of his glove – but not much else until Wright led off the seventh with a homer that cut Colorado’s lead to 4-2.

Francis was lifted with two outs in the seventh after giving up a single to pinchhitter Jose Offerman and the Mets loaded the bases against reliever Mike DeJean, but the right-hander struck out Mike Cameron to end the threat.

Francis allowed two runs and seven hits after giving up seven runs and 11 hits in five innings his last start.

Brian Fuentes gave up a run-scoring double to Reyes in the ninth before finishing for his 16th save in 19 chances.

Ishii worked around four walks and should have been out of the third inning after getting Eric Byrnes to hit a grounder to shortstop Reyes, but Woodward dropped the throw. Shealy followed with an RBI single and Mohr put the Rockies up 4-1 with his ninth homer, a two-run shot to left.

Ishii allowed just one earned run – four total – and seven hits, but still ended up with his sixth loss in eight decisions.

Mike Piazza caught his 1,506th game, tying Darrell Porter for 25th all-time.