Take your pick over who rates as the bigger Mets killer: Ty Wigginton or Manny Acosta.
The former wears a Phillies uniform and yesterday added a six-RBI game against the Mets to his knockout of Josh Thole earlier this month. The latter wore a Mets uniform — but no longer, after bringing a cake filled with ants to the Memorial Day picnic.
Wigginton’s three-run homer in the ninth against Acosta iced an 8-4 loss at Citi Field, ending a three-game winning streak as the Mets bombed in beginning a streak of eight consecutive series against teams with winning records.
And it sent the team scurrying for more players.
The dreadful Acosta will be designated for assignment today, according to a team source, and replaced in the bullpen, at least for the short term, by right-hander Chris Schwinden.
Justin Turner is headed to the disabled list after spraining his right ankle in a third-inning rundown, which forced David Wright to play shortstop for only the second time in his career. Journeyman Omar Quintanilla will arrive from Triple-A Buffalo and is expected to start at shortstop tonight.
Acosta was 1-2 with an 11.86 ERA and surrendered six home runs in 22 innings.
“We’ve tried a number of things,” manager Terry Collins said after the Mets’ winning streak was snapped at three. “For a while, [Acosta] would have a clean inning and then the second or third inning he would struggle a little bit, but we thought one inning at a time, but we’ve got some concerns for sure.”
The Mets (27-22) received two-run homers from Vinny Rottino and Scott Hairston against Cole Hamels, but wasted an opportunity to tie the game against the lefty in the eighth, when Daniel Murphy couldn’t get Andres Torres home from third base with one out, before Wright grounded to third to end the inning.
Wright, who went 0-for-4, is hitless in his last 14 at-bats and saw his average sink to .373.
“When [Hamels] needed to get outs, he was able to bear down and did a terrific job,” Wright said. “He was throwing strikes with all his pitches. He made a few mistakes and we were able to capitalize on that, but not quite enough.”
Any chance at a Mets comeback in the ninth was effectively ruined after Acosta entered and allowed singles to Placido Polanco and Hunter Pence before Wigginton homered.
With the game tied 4-4 in the seventh, Wigginton’s RBI single against Bobby Parnell put the Phillies ahead. It was just another blow by the former Mets utilityman to his former team, after his home plate collision with Thole on May 7 sent the catcher to the disabled list with a concussion.
The go-ahead rally started with Jimmy Rollins’ leadoff single. With Rollins running, Polanco hit a comebacker and Parnell instinctively threw to second with hopes of starting a double play. Wright, sensing there was no play at second with Rollins running, stepped in front of the bag to cut off the throw and ended up only getting the out at first base.
“In any situation you just hope for one out,” Parnell said. “Two is a luxury. We’ve got an out there, and if I had pitched a little bit better, it wouldn’t have really mattered.”
Jon Niese was done in the sixth after surrendering a two-run homer to John Mayberry Jr. that gave the Phillies a 4-2 lead. Niese was at 111 pitches after walking Wigginton — his fifth walk of the game — to start the inning, but was allowed to face Mayberry, who hammered a 3-1 fastball just inside the left-field foul pole.
mpuma@nypost.com