Two baseball cultures in the same big-market city were on display Monday night in the Subway Series in front of 46,517 passionate fans.
And it was so much fun to watch at Yankee Stadium.
The Subway Series never disappoints. From the moment the Yankees fans booed ex-Yankee Curtis Granderson in the first inning, this was game on for the Mets and Yankees as the Mets drilled four home runs in the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium to win 9-7.
The Mets made sweeping changes before the game, moving starter Jenrry Mejia to the bullpen, and it paid off in a big way as Mejia came out the winning pitcher in a game that ended with Kyle Farnsworth getting Brian McCann to hit into a 3-5-3 double play with Lucas Duda making the diving stop and throw to get it started.
It doesn’t matter that the Mets have become a failed franchise, trying to find baseball resurrection, while the Yankees are trying to find their way back to the postseason after last year’s disappointing performance.
The Mets try to do everything on the cheap under the ownership of the Wilpons; the Yankees and the Steinbrenner family are never afraid to bust the bank but have assembled an aging team that has massive pitching and injury issues.
But the moral of this story, of this game, is the Mets play in the wrong ballpark.
The fourth home run was a two-run shot by Chris Young in the eighth inning off reliever Preston Claiborne that snapped a 7-7 tie. The Mets scored three runs in that inning and got a spark from rookie Eric Campbell, who led off with a hustle double and then came around to score the tying run on Duda’s broken-bat single to center.
Young had just snapped an 0-for-18 slump in a 5-4 win over the Phillies on Sunday.
Monday night was the first time the Mets had hit four home runs in a game in more than a year. Last May 3 they blasted four homers in Atlanta in a 7-5 win.
The Mets getting four home runs in one game means that they are nowhere near cavernous Citi Field. Yankee Stadium is a hitter’s paradise. Citi Field is a hitter’s worst nightmare.
“Part of it is being here,’’ Terry Collins said of the Mets’ power display, noting he thought Young’s homer would not have been high enough to escape Citi Field.
And, by the way, all this comes on the heels of a four-game sweep of the Yankees last year in the Subway Series.
The power made a winner of Mejia, who was shifted to the bullpen before the game as the Mets shuffled the pitching deck. Rafael Montero will come up from Triple-A Las Vegas and start Wednesday at Citi Field in Game 3 of the Subway Series.
I’ve been calling for the Mets to bring up the young arms to make a difference and Monday night that is exactly what happened.
“I’m ready to help my team,’’ Mejia told The Post in the dugout before the game. “I want to start but I understand how important this role is for my team. Sandy [Alderson] explained it to me and I am ready for the challenge. I will get a reliever’s mind-set.’’
Mejia pitched 1 ¹/₃ innings as his record improved to 4-0.
After the Mets took the 9-7 lead, Yangervis Solarte led off the eighth with a single, but Mejia got Kelly Johnson to bounce into a 3-6-3 double play. After another single, Mejia ended the eighth with a strikeout of Brett Gardner.
The Yankees not only lost the game, but Carlos Beltran had to leave the game with an elbow injury, too.
Bartolo Colon, the Mets’ big offseason pitching acquisition, started and was dreadful.
Hiroki Kuroda wasn’t much better. He got a grand slam from Gardner to put the Yankees on top, 4-1. Then after the Mets came back to tie the score on Granderson’s two-run home run in the sixth on a 3-0 pitch — yes, it is good to be back home with the short porch in right field — the Yankees came back with three more runs in the bottom of the inning.
The Mets would not go away, though. They play hard under manager Terry Collins, and Alderson praised Collins before the game for the way he has had his team play with grit even though the two sometimes disagree on strategy.
Eric Young Jr., who has been riding the bench despite being a spark plug to the offense, ripped a two-run home run to right in the seventh off reliever Alfredo Aceves to start the comeback.
“It’s a nice park to hit in,’’ said Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who homered to right in the fifth.
The Mets have found a home at Yankee Stadium and Mejia has found a home in the bullpen. Home is where home runs happen.