MLB

Yankees, Mets to meet just 4 times in ’13

The Subway Series has gone off the rails.

Major League Baseball released its preliminary 2013 schedule yesterday and, while it is a baseball purist’s nightmare, metropolitan area fans who enjoy the annual interborough battles between the Yankees and Mets likely aren’t going to be too thrilled either.

The slate includes an interleague game every day of the regular season as the awful Astros — with or without Roger Clemens — move from the National League Central to the American League West.

Closer to home, the Yankees and Mets are each scheduled to open the season at home on April 1. The Yankees will entertain the Red Sox on Opening Day while the Mets will get a visit from the Padres. Right now, the games are scheduled to start within five minutes of each other.

Wait, it gets worse for fans of the Subway Series.

The New York teams will meet each other just four times rather than the six games everyone has grown accustomed to. And rather than the two separate Friday through Sunday three-game sets that have been the norm since 1999, the games will all be played during the week — the same week.

The Mets will host the Yankees May 27 and 28 at Citi Field with the teams shifting to The Bronx for a pair of games May 29 and 30.

BOX SCORE

“I like it better,” Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey said. “It’s unfair that every year we have to play the Yankees, just because they are an inter-city rival when the other teams don’t.”

Said third baseman David Wright, “[The Yankees] have a real good team, so it’s obviously beneficial for what we’re trying to accomplish that it’s [condensed]. Not that we don’t enjoy that series, because at least I do, but the Yankees are always a good team.“You play them four times and it gives the fans an opportunity to come out to both ballparks. It gives fans a taste of that interleague Subway Series, but at the same time it makes the schedule a little more, I don’t know if ‘fair’ is the word. … It will be nice to have a little more balance to the schedule.”

Though many of the Yankees players said they hadn’t seen the schedule and couldn’t comment on it, manager Joe Girardi said he had only seen parts and didn’t “have a feel for it.”

The Yankees manager did say he has never believed the Subway Series should be an even number of games.

“I always thought it should be an odd number, that’s my personal opinion,” Girardi said. “I don’t think it should be an even number. You can declare a winner every year. That’s the idea of a rivalry.

“I always say it should be one series, and the schedule should be balanced. But my thoughts don’t matter.’’

In addition to the Mets, the Yankees will host the Giants, Dodgers and Diamondbacks in interleague play while visiting the Rockies, Padres and Dodgers. The June 18-19 series with the Dodgers in The Bronx will mark the Dodgers’ first regular-season appearance at Yankee Stadium.

The Mets also will host the White Sox, Royals and Tigers in interleague play while visiting the Twins, White Sox and Indians.

In another scheduling quirk, the Yankees will play an interleague series with the Giants the next to last weekend of the regular season. Then, after three games with the Rays, they will finish the season with the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

Maybe that’s when the Rocket makes his comeback.

additional reporting by George A. King III and Mike Puma