Rick Reed matched El Duque's sparkling start with a solid outing of his own.(AP)

You must look for them and find them, and the Yankees are going to give you absolutely no cooperation.

Which is why it was so stunning that the Mets actually won this game when their sixth-inning rally short-circuited worse than a fuse box in a flood.

"I don't think there was any doubt we felt we let an opportunity get away," first baseman Todd Zeile said. "But instead of being down when the inning ended, I think we felt like, 'All right! Now we're back in it.'"

In other words, the Mets were in denial.

They should have entered Game 3 tied 1-1 in this series -- at least -- and not trailing 2-0. Thanks to poor baserunning and worse relief work, they blew too many opportunities in a pulsating 4-3, 12-inning Game 1 loss. Thanks to Mike Hampton pitching more like Meathead Mike from All in the Family than like the pitcher the Mets traded for, they lost Game 2 despite a gutsy ninth-inning comeback.

And now, poof!, there went another opportunity in Game 3.

Zeile's RBI double in the sixth pulled the Mets into a 2-2 tie. But then, with the bases loaded and none out ...

Jay Payton struck out.

Mike Bordick followed with another strikeout.

And pinch-hitter Darryl Hamilton grounded to shortstop.

Pffffft.

The Mets were back in it?

That was Zeile's perspective.

It wasn't unanimous.

To some in the dugout, it sure seemed like things were sagging.

"A little bit," said third baseman Robin Ventura, whose second-inning home run kick-started the Mets to a 1-0 lead. "You feel like you've wasted a golden opportunity. You can't get a better opportunity than the bases-loaded and none out."

To that point, though, the Mets' World Series theme song could have been The Eagles' Wasted Days and Wasted Nights rather than the insufferable Who Let the Dogs Out?

But thanks to yeoman work from starter Rick Reed (eight strikeouts in six innings) and relievers Turk Wendell, Dennis Cook and John Franco, the Mets stayed even with the Yankees. Then, Benny Agbayani chopped an RBI double against El Duque in the eighth and pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell lofted a sacrifice fly, and it was 4-2. And then, closer Armando Benitez slammed the door on the Yanks in the ninth (yes, miracles sometimes actually do occur in October).

So maybe this is the game that turns things in the Mets' favor. Maybe they will stop running themselves out of innings and maybe their relievers will continue to pitch as they did in Game 3, not Game 1.

"Some of those things were not that costly, necessarily," Zeile said. "It certainly was disappointing. Unfortunately, Timo and I read the same thing on the ball I hit (in Game 1) and it cost us a run."

That was when both players thought Zeile's sixth-inning double off the wall was gone in Game 1 and went into their home run trots. By the time Perez recovered and tried to score from first, he was thrown out at the plate.

He should have scored.

"Who knows?" Zeile said. "The outcome could have been different, but I don't think it was because we were nervous. I just think it was circumstances."

Problem is, the Yankees have made their living over the past three seasons annihilating teams that make mistakes. When you have a chance, you've got to drop the hammer on them. Because if you don't, they'll do it to you in a heartbeat.

The margin for error against the Yankees is so much smaller than it is against anybody else.

"No question," Piazza said. "No question. That's why they're a World Series team.

"But that's why we are, too. Throughout the postseason, we don't give up."

No. But they also played a much cleaner brand of baseball than they played in the first two games of the World Series.

"You get to the World Series, you have to figure you can't give away any more than three outs," Zeile said. "You can't miss any opportunity and expect to win.

"You get to the World Series, you have to capitalize on the other team's mistakes."

Tuesday, the Mets took advantage of El Duque's high pitch count (he finished with 134) in the late innings.

And other than the sixth inning, they didn't give any more away.

But, oh, that sixth. Such a chance to break the game open.

Yep, at that point, this one had Yankees autographed all over it.

Except, a funny thing happened on the way to what would have been their third consecutive World Series sweep.

They lost.