MLB

Mets slow down as luck deserts them

Jason Bay could only watch as Russell Martin’s walk-off homer cleared the wall.

Jason Bay could only watch as Russell Martin’s walk-off homer cleared the wall. (Paul J. Bereswill)

Ugly defense. Poor base-running. Bad luck. A sense of impending, inevitable doom.

Yes, in this 50th-anniversary season, the 2012 Mets chose yesterday to pay tribute to their lovable 1962 ancestors.

A roller-coaster, 5-4 Subway Series loss to the Yankees in The Bronx, producing a pinstriped sweep in the first installment of this annual, two-borough saga, left Terry Collins’ group dazed, confused and, well, “angry,” according to the Mets manager.

To the rest of us, the heartbreaker should have served another purpose. It reminded us the Mets had some bad luck coming their way. With probably some more in the future.

“Sometimes those balls are going to fall in. It’s just averages,” Mets reliever Bobby Parnell said. “I wish it was less, but it is what it is.”

“Every team has its ups and downs,” Scott Hairston said. “We just had our down time.”

BOX SCORE

SUBWAY SERIES MOMENTS

Having lost six of their last seven games, the Mets are now 32-29, 4 1/2 games (five in the loss column) behind the Nationals in the National League East. They are very much alive in the pennant race.

Their character shouldn’t be questioned; shoot, following yesterday’s nightmarish seventh and eighth innings, the Mets responded by giving Rafael Soriano his first blown save of the season in the ninth before Russell Martin took Jon Rauch deep for the walk-off winner.

We’re not here to talk about heart or grit or resiliency, because the Mets are plenty good at that stuff, starting with their manager. We’re here to talk about the stark reality of a 162-game season.

This simply is not a very talented club, especially relative to the competitive NL East. The Mets have scored 262 runs and allowed 281 runs, and that produces a winning record only with the help of some good breaks and unsustainable performances.

Unsustainable like David Wright’s start to the season or the team’s excellence with runners in scoring position. A good break like the Phillies botching a rundown play on May 8 or even the karma that came with umpire Adrian Johnson’s favorable ruling on Carlos Beltran’s drive down the line that led to Johan Santana’s no-hitter.

Yesterday, the law of averages came crashing down on the Mets. Wright made a critical throwing error on a grounder by the relaxed-running Andruw Jones in the seventh inning, and that led to Martin’s first homer, a Yankee Stadium special that bounced off the top of the right-field wall and into the seats to cut the Yankees’ deficit to 3-2.

The Yankees’ eighth-inning rally started when reserve-reserve-reserve shortstop Omar Quintanilla botched a slow grounder by Derek Jeter, and it featured a Mark Teixeira groundball single past Jordany Valdespin and a perfectly placed flare single to short right field by Alex Rodriguez.

And when the Mets, having tied the game, put runners on first and third with one out in the ninth even after Ike Davis got thrown out at third, Josh Thole — inserted as a pinch-hitter for his ability to make contact — got called out on a questionably low strike three by home plate umpire Mike Muchilinski.

“It didn’t matter what move we made,” Collins said. “It didn’t work.”

Collins noted Davis’ recent improvement. He certainly owes the Mets something, when you measure actual performance versus anticipated performance. Maybe Daniel Murphy, too, and Jonathon Niese encouraged with his outing.

On the flip side, you’re naturally skeptical whether R.A. Dickey can keep up his superb season, and Hairston is due for a regression.

To keep outplaying their expected record, the Mets must get considerably better relief pitching, and given their lack of power, they must keep hitting in the clutch, a skill that naturally experiences peaks and valleys. And Collins must continue to keep his team as angry or hungry or whatever it is that has worked so far.

With the Rays up next in this interleague portion of the schedule, that won’t be easy. Yet as long as they don’t accept what the rest of us suspect, that more bad breaks are coming, they’ll still be worth watching.

kdavidoff@nypost.com