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Good thing the Mets didn’t count their chickens before they were hatched last night.
Just when it seemed as if manager Terry Collins’ crew was on the verge of securing a series victory against the Yankees, thunder struck twice in the seventh inning, once again leaving the Mets frustrated against their Subway rivals.
Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez homered in the seventh, and the Mets wasted later chances in a 4-3 loss to the Yankees before a record crowd of 42,122 at Citi Field.
Frank Francisco, who called the Yankees “chickens” in The Post before the series started, was unavailable to pitch because of soreness in his left oblique and could be headed to the disabled list. But the Mets, who had their four-game winning streak snapped, didn’t need a closer after squandering a 3-0 lead in the seventh.
Ibanez’s three-run blast against Chris Young tied the game before Chavez hit a solo homer against Jon Rauch. In five games against the Yankees this season, the Mets have been out-homered, 13-4.
“We’ve had plenty of opportunities to try and keep ourselves in ballgames,” Rauch said. “We haven’t made pitches when we needed to and I sure as hell haven’t made pitches when I’ve needed to. [And we haven’t been getting] those timely hits, but we’re a damn good team and we’re going to keep playing hard and keep playing well.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said this was another example of his team not necessarily needing hits with runners in scoring position: The Yankees were 1-for-4 in that category.
“They’re in scoring position when they’re on first and there’s a hitter up,” Girardi said. “That’s who we are. I can’t make them run faster, but they hit the ball out of the ballpark and they win games.”
The Mets made late noise, but never broke through. David Robertson escaped a jam in the eighth following two walks, after Boone Logan got two huge outs for the Yankees in the seventh, leaving Jordany Valdespin stranded at third base. The lefty Logan entered and struck out Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy in succession to preserve the Yankees’ one-run lead.
The Mets were rolling until the seventh, when Duda’s fielding blunder — he misjudged Nick Swisher’s fly ball into a double — put runners on second and third for the Yankees. Ibanez’s blast against Young followed.
“That’s a big game-changer and tough to let a guy down when he is pitching that well,” Duda said.
Young had been cruising, allowing only two hits over the first six innings. But the righty walked Mark Teixeira to open the seventh and never recorded an out in the inning.
“That’s frustrating for me to make a bad pitch and cost us the game,” Young said. “Ultimately I will build on the positives and I’ve got L.A. in five days and I’ll be ready to go.”
After three straight dominant starts, Ivan Nova lasted only 5 2/3 innings for the Yankees and surrendered three runs, two earned, on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. In his previous three starts combined — against Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Washington — Nova had allowed only two earned runs.
Young delivered an RBI single in the sixth — after Nova had intentionally walked Josh Thole — to give the Mets a 3-0 lead. Murphy started the rally with a double.
Alex Rodriguez booted Scott Hairston’s grounder in the fourth for an error, helping the Mets take a 2-0 lead on Thole’s RBI ground out.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ homer leading off the third produced the game’s first run. Nieuwenhuis, who was on the bench when the Mets faced lefty Andy Pettitte on Friday, sliced a shot to left that stayed just inside the foul pole for his seventh homer of the season.
mpuma@nypost.com