It’s a long season. Teams play well, and then they play badly; the breaks go for them, and then suddenly go against them. Monday, when David Wright came to the plate to chants of “MVP! MVP!” in what would end up a 4-3 win over Atlanta, you might have thought the Mets would never lose. Yesterday, as Wright made three errors and another questionable play in what would end up a 2-1 loss, you might have thought it was 1999, and that the Braves simply owned the Mets in every way possible.

It’s not so – yesterday was as fine a loss as you could ever hope for – but the loss of the first important series of the year to the Braves should serve to temper expectations for the overly exuberant faithful.

The most important thing about yesterday’s game was that it was, errors aside, beautifully played, clocking in just under two hours. I’d give my eyeteeth, if I still had them, for every game to go so fast; when the game moves quickly and crisply it’s infinitely more enjoyable.

That brings us to the second most important thing about yesterday’s game: Tom Glavine. Late in his career he’s enjoying a resurgence. Far from the tired seeming and somewhat dull pitcher who arrived in New York two years ago, he’s again one of the most inventive and entertaining pitchers in the game.

None of the first six batters Glavine faced yesterday took more than three pitches to deal with. Glavine was a model of efficiency through all of his seven innings, throwing away over and over again, forcing batters to hit the ball on the ground, and coming inside for the strikeout when needed. One of the runs against him took a dubiously scored single, a stolen base, a groundout, and an error to score; the other was a home run off the bat of Andruw Jones, which is no shame for any pitcher. Granting that the Braves were playing the B-squad, Glavine looked, as he has since last summer, to be in Cy Young form.

In the dubiously scored single and the error, both the responsibility of David Wright, those so inclined can see something good. Wright is improving defensively. He’s worth paying attention to between pitches; last year, he didn’t always shift positions or rock on his heels with the delivery of the pitch, making those crucial adjustments that mean the difference between hits and outs. Yesterday he was doing so (as he has been all year), and got handcuffed by a couple of lasers hit right at him.

Thus far in his career, handling the ball hasn’t been his problem as much as getting to it has been. Last year, the balls on which he made miscues might well have been shots down the line rather than errors. Getting handcuffed because your positioning is good and pulling the first baseman off the bag with throws once in a while aren’t really things to be worried about in the long run.

The bad, of course, comes with the fact that the Mets have stopped hitting over the last two games. There is a reason: Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd are both hurt, a problem compounded not only by the light-hitting reserves the team took north from spring training but by manager Willie Randolph’s unaccountable and mysterious insistence on putting Jose Valentin, who can’t hit, rather than Victor Diaz, who can, in left field.

Diaz is in Triple-A – you object? That’s exactly the point. The Mets need hitters right now, yet Diaz was sent down so that a shabby reliever, Pedro Feliciano, could be called up. This is a bad call. One of the impressive things about the Mets’ pen is its durability; Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman, and Darren Oliver are all capable of throwing multiple innings, and the first two of pitching several days in a row. With two big bats on the bench, and not on the DL, Diaz’s stick is needed far more than a pitcher who’s probably not going to be used in any important spots anyway.

Injuries you can’t do anything about – roster decisions, you can. So while Glavine’s pitching and (oddly) Wright’s misadventures in the field are signs of why fans should continue to be enthusiastic about what’s been the best team in the league thus far, the presence of Feliciano in the bullpen is a sign of why fans should remain skeptical. This team is awfully good, but still has some holes, and certainly isn’t good enough to run out a heart of the order consisting of Wright, Carlos Delgado, and crossed fingers, as it did yesterday.

No matter how hot their start, the Mets can’t afford to shoot themselves in the foot. Randolph and general manager Omar Minaya have been rightly praised for the fine job they’ve done in getting the big things right thus far; with a true contender on their hands, it’s time to start getting the smaller things right, too.

tmarchman@nysun.com