MLB

WILD PITCHING

IT feels as if the Yankees are playing four corners with their rotation though there are way more than a few minutes left in the season. There are too many games left for the Yanks to keep starting Darrell Rasner and Dan Giese and Sidney Ponson, and believe that a strong offense and pixie dust will get them into October.

You can’t stall away the rest of the schedule hoping to get to the postseason on rotation bandages, prayers and reclamation projects.

PHOTO GALLERY: Mets – Yankees Doubleheader

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You might get a moment of inspiration amid the desperation as the Yankees did last night. Ponson was placed on the roster after the Yanks were savaged by the Mets in a doubleheader opener, and he authored six shutout innings in a 9-0 triumph that brought a split to this Bronx-Queens twinbill.

But before anyone gets too giddy, let’s remember Brandon Claussen and Tyler Clippard had their lone shining moments for the Yankees in Subway Series games. And let’s remember that Rasner and Giese had their journeyman to The Man phase for the Yanks already this year. Might they again? Maybe. Their rudimentary stuff and track records, though, suggest it is midnight for Cinderella.

And let’s remember that the more you trust Ponson, the more he will let you down. The Rangers were the latest team to learn that, just prior to releasing him for unbecoming behavior despite a 4-1 record.

His season record is now 5-1, 1-0 as a Yank, because Ponson escaped bases-loaded, no outs in the second and bases loaded, one out in the third. He retired the final eight men he faced. His sinker was superb and he did not record an outfield out. He badly outpitched Pedro Martinez, whose ERA climbed to 7.12 in six starts. If the Yanks are having difficulties with no-names, the Mets are not quite comfortable with their rotation brand names.

All his pitching IQ and moxie might not be enough for Martinez, who may just have lost too much arm strength. Over the next two days at Shea, the Mets will send their lefty enigmas Johan Santana and Oliver Perez to the mound as Santana seeks the dominance for which he was obtained and Perez hunts competence.

The Mets have this comfort, however: They are one game under .500, yet just two games behind the reeling Phillies in the loss column.

The Yanks, however, are chasing the Red Sox and Rays, two .600-plus teams. And the Yanks are just about to close the soft part of their schedule. The next three teams up are the Rangers (the majors’ highest-scoring squad), followed by Boston and Tampa. That gauntlet threatens to expose much of the Yankee pitching.

It feels as if the loss of Chien-Ming Wang is a tipping point. With him, maybe the Yanks survive the free-agent failures of Carl Pavano and Kei Igawa, the youthful missteps of Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, and all of those unreliable bullpen arms. But the loss of Wang’s reliable six-to-eight innings an outing finally pushed the Yanks to too many innings for too many sub-par performers.

The Subway opener in the Bronx emphasized that. Giese lasted four innings in his second major league start, and was the Yankees’ best pitcher. Carlos Delgado drove in a Mets’ single-game record nine runs in three at-bats against relievers Edwar Ramirez, Ross Ohlendorf and LaTroy Hawkins. The Mets won 15-6. Ohlendorf was sent to the minors afterward in exchange for Igawa. Ramirez belongs in the minors, too, and Hawkins is nearing the waiver wire. The Yankees pen in 2008 has different names, but the same reality: Mariano Rivera and a bunch of riff-raff.

They survived yesterday as two games in two boroughs produced two routs. The Mets and Yanks both earned a win, both scored 15 runs in total. Yet the Yanks lost another half game to both the Red Sox and Rays.

There is too much time left in the season to play four corners. You cannot stall the inevitable.

joel.sherman@nypost.com

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