One of the believers, seated down the left-field line, held up a homemade sign in the late innings that read, ''Let's See a Dream Come True.'' The Mets have tried. For five weeks of scintillating baseball, they hit in the clutch, made the plays, got the big outs.

But fall settled in with a chill at Shea Stadium last night, and the Mets' smallest home crowd in a decade watched the team fall meekly to Jimmy Anderson and the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1. The Mets will be eliminated from the playoff race tonight if they lose and the Atlanta Braves win.

The Mets, who had won 25 of 31 games before dropping two of three in Atlanta last weekend, have five games to play and are four and a half games behind the Braves in the National League East. Atlanta plays host to the second-place Philadelphia Phillies in the opener of a three-game series tonight.

''We needed to win these games just to have a chance,'' center fielder Jay Payton said. ''We're still not mathematically out of it, but it's going to take a supermiracle now to get where we want to be.''

Only 6,315 fans came to Shea last night for a game originally scheduled for Sept. 17. The Mets had sold more than 25,000 tickets for the game, but the vast majority of ticket-holders opted for a refund, exchange or credit to their season-ticket account.

It seemed clear that many Mets fans -- so inspired by the would-be miracle run that began before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and took on new meaning after it -- were doubters. They were not alone. Mets Manager Bobby Valentine sensed doubt among his own players.

''If you're a believer, you're always a believer,'' Valentine said before the game. ''If you're a doubter, you're always a doubter. Belief is something that's proven in the end, not when you're going through it. This isn't the end, so those who believe continue to believe, and those who doubt continue to doubt.''

Valentine believed that would hold true even after the defeat, because the path to the playoffs is more defined. If the Mets win the rest of their games, they will be rooting for the Phillies the next three days and against both the Braves and Phils this weekend.

''Now, it's a lot less disjointed,'' Valentine said. ''You know exactly what has to happen. It's probably easier to believe in this thing. We have to win five games and Philly has to win three and lose three -- and they have to win the right ones. Very concrete.''

Valentine was not surprised at the size of the crowd last night, because it was a makeup game, but some players felt that if the Mets had won the Atlanta series, more fans would have come. The players took batting practice indoors, avoiding the damp, raw weather, and the play on the field generated nothing.

''It seemed a little dead out there tonight,'' said starter Glendon Rusch, who worked five innings and lost. ''But it was a Monday, a cold, dreary night. I guess that kind of set the tone.''

So did Anderson (9-17), who has had a dreadful season but has always baffled the Mets. He allowed one run and four hits in eight innings, and has a 1.21 earned run average in four career games against the Mets.

Valentine and others credited Anderson, a finesse pitcher who stayed low in the zone with his sinker and spotted his 88-mile-an-hour fastball well. His performance underscored how difficult the Mets' task really is. The Pirates have the worst record in the N.L., but if their pitcher is on, there is not much the Mets can do.

Rusch (8-11) was not terrible, but he made one very bad pitch in the second inning and was gone after five, when the Mets trailed by 3-1. Rusch's replacement, Dicky Gonzalez, faced nine batters, allowing five hits and two runs.

Craig Wilson singled to lead off the second, and Gary Matthews Jr. followed by hitting a first-pitch fastball over the empty bleachers in left. The Pirates had taken a 2-0 lead on the only pitch Rusch wanted to take back.

''The last thing you want to do is be a rally-killer when the team is playing well,'' Rusch said. ''I'm not going to beat myself up over it too much. The main thing, at this point, is to continue to improve everything. I have one start left, and then be prepared to get ready for next year.''

It is wait-till-next-year time for the Mets, whose miracles have run out and whose fans seem to know it.


The Mets' attendance last night was the smallest at Shea Stadium since Sept. 17, 1991, when 4,355 fans showed up to see the Mets play host to the Expos in a game originally scheduled for Montreal. . . . General Manager STEVE PHILLIPS defended closer ARMANDO BENITEZ yesterday, saying he has no intention of trading him despite Benitez's repeated failures in big situations. ''I have no plan or desire to trade Armando,'' said Phillips, who later added, ''If I'm settling for Armando Benitez, I'm a happy man, in putting a team together.'' Benitez has 43 saves in 46 opportunities and is the major league leader in the Rolaids Relief Man standings. But he could not close out the Atlanta Braves with a three-run lead Sept. 23 and with a four-run lead last Saturday.

Photo: Catcher Mike Piazza and the Mets' smallest home crowd in 10 years last night had little to cheer about. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)