Ike Davis had been hitless in six at-bats against the Milwaukee Brewers before nearly pulling the Mets out of a big rut with a three-run homer in the fourth inning Saturday off right-hander Marco Estrada.

After the eventual 8-6 loss, Davis credited Jerry Manuel correcting a mechanical flaw in his swing.

The rookie first baseman had told Manuel a couple of weeks ago to be on the lookout to ensure Davis’ hips were “cocked” at the start of his swing. Otherwise, Davis’ hands don’t get through the zone quickly enough and he pops up fastballs down the middle to shortstop.

Manuel pointed out before the game that Davis had seemed to have fallen into that issue, and they worked to correct it during batting practice.

“If I don’t do that, then I don’t catch up to anything and I swing at bad pitches,” Davis said. “That’s what I was doing like the last six at-bats before I made an adjustment and caught a changeup and hit it out of the yard.”

IN A PINCH: Manuel sent Gary Matthews Jr. to pinch hit with the bases loaded and two out in the third inning, with the Mets trailing 5-3. Why? Manuel reasoned it was too early in the game to use some of his other pinch-hitting candidates. Matthews struck out, dropping his season average to .179.

“In the course of a game, you never really know what run is going to beat you, or what runs you’re going to need to get at what time,” Manuel said. “But you basically try to save a guy that you think has a good matchup for a guy later. I mean, he’s a switch-hitter. We had the bases loaded and felt that he has a little pop right-handed. We felt we might just take a shot at it.

LIGHT COFFEE: Manuel said he asked umpires for Brewers reliever Todd Coffee to switch gloves because the cream-colored glove Coffee was using blended in too closely with the Negro Leagues uniforms Milwaukee was wearing on the night. Coffee had used the glove all season, but there is enough color contrast with the Brewers’ regular uniforms.