Now Subway Series is a race to the bottom

Back in May, when the Mets visited the Bronx for Round One of the Subway Series, it was a battle of two first-place teams doing what most people expected baseball’s pair of high-payroll, big-market juggernauts to be doing.

The debate then? Let’s see who’s better.

Seven weeks later, on the eve of the Yankees’ trip to Citi Field, we’re having an entirely different conversation. It’s been a slog to mediocrity for both New York rivals of late.

After the conclusion of the first Subway Series, the Yankees moved 17 games over .500 at 42-25. The Mets moved 21 games over at 45-24.

But recently? They’ve played like impostors, poor facsimiles of the playoff contenders that were supposed to be merely crossing off the days until October.

Oddly enough, the June date both teams fell off the cliff came on Friday the 13th.

Since then, the Mets are tied for MLB’s fewest wins (5-14) during that span, with the Yankees only a little bit better (6-14).

In the process, the Mets kicked away seven games in the standings, dropping below the NL East-leading Phillies. The Yankees, who once held a seven-game lead, are now below the Blue Jays and — incredibly — tied for second with the Rays.

The question for this weekend’s Subway Series? Time to find out who’s worse.

“It’s continued longer than I would have anticipated, in terms of a prolonged stretch of not playing very good baseball consistently,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Thursday. “So you do learn from that. I think it’s natural for opinions about certain segments of the team to change when you go through a three-week stretch like we’ve gone through.

“My overarching opinion of the team remains the same. I think we’re a good team. I think we have good players. I think we’re certainly much better than we’ve played over the last three weeks.”

Stearns easily could have been speaking for his pinstriped pals across town, too. Just as the Mets were watching their overachieving rotation disintegrate on an almost daily basis — losing three starters to the injured list in two weeks — and the lineup vanish around a resurgent Juan Soto, the Yankees began malfunctioning as soon as Aaron Judge showed the smallest hints of being mortal.

The difference? The Mets have a more credible excuse, with the pitching staff crumbling so rapidly that it’s been impossible to come up with adequate patch jobs to stave off disaster.

Since June 13, the staff’s 6.24 ERA is the worst in the majors, considerably higher than the runner-up Nationals (5.81), and the Mets sent two more pitchers to the injured list before Thursday’s game: starter Paul Blackburn (shoulder impingement) and reliever Dedniel Nunez (elbow sprain).

That leaves the Mets without a scheduled starter for Sunday’s series finale against the Yankees, who at least can counter this weekend with three arms that range from reliable to Cy Young Award caliber: Marcus Stroman, Carlos Rodon and Max Fried.

That’s a significant edge for the Yankees — as long as they can figure out a way to do everything else sufficiently.

Therein lies the problem for Aaron Boone & Co. Lately, the Yankees have been betrayed by one all-too-familiar issue, shoddy glovework, as well as a surprising newcomer, the suddenly vulnerable bullpen. Just this week, the Yankees were doomed by defensive miscues by Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice (behind the plate) to pair with a relief corps that has been middle of the MLB pack (1.38 WHIP, 3.94 ERA) during their own June (into July) swoon.

“We’ve got to play better, that’s what it comes down to,” Judge said this week. “It’s not concerning. We’re not concerned about what’s going on around us. We have to control what we do in this room and what we do on the field.”

Judge is going to need some help in that regard. While the captain’s strikeout rate has skyrocketed (33.3%) during the team’s skid, he still had six homers and a .987 OPS in the 19 games before Thursday. Chisholm has been in the neighborhood (five homers, .937 OPS), but the rest have been too erratic. And now with Judge being intentionally walked with more regularity — his 22 are tops in MLB, more than twice that of runner-ups Shohei Ohtani and Cal Raleigh (each has 10) — he won’t even be allowed to do it alone.

One thing we know for certain about the upcoming showdown: Soto is going to be much happier this time around, freed from the constant booing he heard during his bumpy Bronx homecoming. Soto was an easy target then after a slow start — he also had a miserable series at the plate, going 1-for-10 with a single and three strikeouts — but the $765 million slugger is now at the peak of his powers.

Soto was just named Player of the Month thanks to his epic June, when he batted .322 with 11 homers, 20 RBIs and a 1.196 OPS. During the last Subway Series, the narrative was all about Soto supposedly missing the Yankees, or even having buyer’s remorse for defecting to Queens. That won’t be the conversation on this occasion. Soto would like nothing more than to inflict the damage he failed to do in Round One, and the Mets have never needed it more since his arrival.

You could even say the stakes are higher for this Subway Series. This time it’s not about supremacy. It’s more a matter of survival.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.