MLB

Mets drub crumbling Yankees in Subway Series eyesore

If starting pitching sets the mood for a baseball game, no wonder Tuesday night’s Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium was very depressing.

Vidal Nuno and Zack Wheeler were awful in a 12-7 Mets win in front of 45,958 that was their sixth straight over the Yankees, who are in real danger of experiencing a free fall because of injuries and underachieving players.

“It was one of those days. I have to focus more and take the pressure off myself,’’ said Nuno, who was plagued by control problems from the start of the game when he hit Eric Young Jr. and walked Daniel Murphy to open the first inning. “Four walks are frustrating and I know that’s not part of my game.’’

In 3 ¹/₃ innings Nuno allowed seven runs (five earned) and four hits. One of those was Curtis Granderson’s three-run homer in the first when the Mets copped a 4-0 lead.

As bad as Nuno was, Wheeler matched him even though he had plenty of run support. The 4-0 lead the Mets staked him to in the first became 4-3 after the opening inning because of Brian McCann’s two-run homer and Mark Teixeira’s RBI single. Leading 11-4 in the fifth, Wheeler didn’t qualify for the victory because he didn’t complete five innings.

In 4 ¹/₃ innings Wheeler allowed five runs, seven hits and walked six.

Of course the ugly game looked a lot better to the Mets than the Yankees, who placed reliever Shawn Kelley (back) on the disabled list Tuesday and have their fingers crossed Carlos Beltran doesn’t require right elbow surgery to remove or shave a bone spur for which he received a cortisone shot late Monday evening.

“We played some good baseball here the last two nights,’’ said Daniel Murphy, who bounced a three-run homer off the right-field foul pole against Alfredo Aceves in the fifth. “We head home and see if we can win the series.’’

The third game of four Wednesday night at Citi Field pits Masahiro Tanaka against Rafael Montero, who will make his major league debut. It will also feature two 19-19 teams after the Yankees dropped their fourth straight.

“Playing these guys in this ballpark, you better score early and often, and we were able to do that tonight,’’ said David Wright, who went 3-for-5 and drove in two runs.

The first five innings took two hours and 30 minutes and were all the action Joe Girardi saw because plate umpire Jerry Layne tossed the Yankees’ manager when Kelly Johnson was called out on strikes to end the fifth.

The homers by Granderson and Murphy were the fifth and sixth hit by the Mets in the two games, but the power shower likely will subside with the final two games at a less cozy Citi Field.

“He got balls in the middle of the plate,’’ Girardi said of Nuno, a Frontier [Independent] League alumnus who is 1-1 with a bloated 6.43 ERA but in very little danger of losing a spot in the rotation that has lost Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia and will have Chase Whitley make his major league debut Thursday. “He has to live on the edge and he got hurt.’’