PORT ST. LUCIE — At least there wasn’t ambiguity facing Jose Quintana as he departed the mound Tuesday, concluding his Mets debut in the Grapefruit League.

Quintana needs to be more aggressive with his pitches and he knows it.

The Astros bashed the veteran left-hander, ending his afternoon with two outs in the first inning.

Over 30 pitches, Quintana allowed five earned runs on four hits and one walk in the Mets’ 8-4 loss at Clover Park.

“Not good, for sure,” said Quintana, who arrived in December on a two-year contract worth $26 million. “This outing gave me more idea what I have right now and how aggressive I need to be for the next one.”

David Hensley’s two-run homer off the batter’s eye in center field was the Astros’ big hit against him, but Quintana also allowed three doubles in the inning.

Quintana will pitch again Sunday — perhaps in a “B” game, according to manager Buck Showalter — before departing to represent Colombia in the World Baseball Classic.

Quintana indicated it was an adjustment working for the first time in a game with the pitch clock, but mostly blamed location for his poor outing.

“The ball was right in the middle too many times and I paid for that,” Quintana said. “The first [outing] you want to get that feeling on the mound again and for sure I want to do better than I did, but that start gave me what I have right now, so I say, ‘I need to work and be more aggressive in my pitches and more quality pitches than just laying the ball in the middle.’ ”

Quintana split last season with the Pirates and Cardinals and in 32 starts between the teams went 6-7 with a 2.93 ERA with 165 ²/₃ innings pitched.

His addition gave the Mets a full-time lefty for the rotation, although David Peterson started 19 games for the team last year in a fill-in role.

After his outing, Quintana retreated to the bullpen and threw another 15-20 pitches and felt better about the situation.

“It went better,” Quintana said. “You could see results there by feeling how the ball was going out of your hand. The game gives us an opportunity to see where we are at.”

Showalter indicated the veteran is on the track he should be this early in the spring.

“It’s one of those things, you do the history of where they are in the past,” Showalter said. “He’s right where he has been in other spring trainings in terms of velocity and other things like that, so he’ll grow.”

Quintana, 34, is the youngest pitcher in the Mets’ rotation with major league experience.

Justin Verlander (40), Max Scherzer (38) and Carlos Carrasco — who turns 36 in three weeks — have him beat in age and experience.

The rotation’s junior member is 30-year-old Kodai Senga, who arrived from Japan over the winter.

Quintana finished last season with one earned run allowed over 28 innings including postseason.

But the Astros jumped on him with one out in the first inning.

Jimmy Meyers doubled and Chas McCormick walked before Jose Abreu’s RBI double. Korey Lee stroked a double to center field that brought in another two runs before Hensley homered with two outs.

“You want to get in better shape and for me it starts today,” Quintana said. “For sure, the WBC is an even more of an opportunity to be ready at a high level, so I just have one more chance Sunday to be ready for that.”