The Yankees and Mets are in stretch run — but heading in opposite directions

First, a mea culpa.

On July 5, I stuck a fork in the Yankees. More specifically, I said the Mets did by delivering a Game 1 smackdown in a July 4 Subway Series doubleheader in the Bronx.

Cooked. Done. Finished. Scraped off the grill and tossed in the garbage can.

That’s how I described the Yankees in Newsday.

Oops.

But that’s only the half of it. I wound up whiffing on the Mets, too. On that date, they had been atop a barely mediocre NL East for 73 consecutive days. There was no reason to suspect they couldn’t stay on the summit, as the Mets seemed to be everything the Yankees were not. At least that was my impression.

They’re the polar (bear) opposite, a grinding group with building momentum and a roster getting healthier by the day.

Wrong again.

The only consolation? I know I wasn’t alone.

Some reversals of fortune you can see coming. Players returning from the IL. The schedule getting softer. Some attractive options becoming available at the trade deadline.

But that doesn’t adequately explain how the Yankees — once dubbed "unwatchable" by GM Brian Cashman — turned into baseball’s hottest team at almost the same time that the Mets went cold enough to get frostbite.

Midway through that July 4 doubleheader, the Yankees were 41-41 and trailed the first-place Red Sox by 10 1⁄2 games (also five games out of the second wild card). The Mets? They were seven over .500 (43-36), led the division by 3 1⁄2 games and were thought to have survived their chaotic start to the season.

The seven weeks that followed have been shocking in both speed and severity.

The Yankees have rolled to a 31-11 record. They have a two-game lead in the battle for the first wild card and are four games behind the AL East-leading Rays.

The Mets are in a 17-27 freefall and have fallen seven games behind NL East-leading Atlanta. They held a five-game lead after the games of July 28 but have lost 17 of their last 23. They're also seven games out of a wild-card spot.

Along the way, Aaron Boone went from being perceived as the misguided happy face of the Yankees’ lost season to the right man at the Bronx rudder. Privately, Boone probably smiles at how smart he got — in the public eye — over the span of those seven weeks.

"I’m not in the business of handing out credit, so . . . ," he said Saturday. "This is a player-driven sport and the bottom line is guys have played really well to get us back in this position. The fun part about it, the exciting thing about it, is the contributions have come from the entire roster."

Through the latter part of their rebound, the Yankees had a better roster on the IL than the active group Boone had to use each night. Despite reaching the 85% threshold for vaccinations, the Yankees experienced a third COVID-19 outbreak at the start of the second half, one that sidelined two of the team’s most consistent performers (Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela), two-fifths of the stellar rotation (Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery), the slugging catcher (Gary Sanchez) and a trade deadline prize after only a week in pinstripes (Anthony Rizzo).

That’s just the most prominent victims of the COVID count. It doesn’t even include the conventional injuries to Urshela, Luke Voit, Aroldis Chapman, Gleyber Torres and Domingo German.

Still, the Yankees found impact players at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — ones whom Cashman never expected to promote — with Luis Gil (three starts, zero runs) more than holding down a rotation spot in becoming the only MLB pitcher since 1893 to throw at least 4 2⁄3 scoreless innings in each of his first three appearances.

Overall, the rotation — which Cashman got heat for early on — leads the sport in WHIP (1.05) and opponents’ batting average (.197) since July 4 and is third in ERA (2.93). The starters also are 13-6 during that stretch, sparked by Jameson Taillon finding his groove (5-0, 2.01 ERA).

And who could have possibly anticipated starring roles for Tyler Wade and Bronx native Andrew Velazquez? Their defense and speed have brought another dimension, as the Yankees rank second in MLB with 33 stolen bases in 31 games since July 4. In the previous 81 games, they ranked dead last with 17.

"That’s a different team than early in the season," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said during the Yankees’ three-game sweep this past week. "They’re more agile, more versatile, more athletic, and one thing they’ve done throughout the season is they can pitch."

Cora should know. His Sox won their first seven games against the Yankees this season and were 10-3 against them before getting smacked around by this new version in pinstripes.

There’s also the Rizzo factor. Along with Gallo, the Yankees now have two lefthanded-hitting sluggers to better balance the lineup, creating matchup havoc for opposing bullpens. Boston tried for a reunion with its 2007 draft pick at the deadline, but the Yankees got him instead — the day after trading for Gallo — and they’re 10-1 in games he’s played in.

AND THE METS?

The flip side is happening over in Flushing, where the Mets’ big deadline acquisition — Javy Baez — couldn’t do much to spark the sagging offense before landing on the IL with a hip/back ailment. Baez was hitting .171 (6-for-35) with two homers and 14 strikeouts in his first 10 games as the Mets went 3-7. They’re also 6-15 since the deadline while experiencing the same problem that has dogged them the entire season: a woefully underachieving lineup.

Since that July 4 split, the Mets are averaging 3.85 runs — actually a slight uptick from their season-long 3.78, which ranks 28th (MLB average is 4.51). Oddly enough, their .233 batting average with men on base also ranks 28th, but the Yankees are only one slot higher at .237.

Unlike the Yankees, however, the rotation is where the Mets have struggled, and that part was neglected by acting GM Zack Scott at the deadline. The Mets’ rotation has a 4.90 ERA since July 4 and is averaging less than five innings per start. Not a great complement for an offense that can’t score.

Jacob deGrom (1.08 ERA, 15 starts) appeared to be a lock for his third Cy Young Award before a recurring elbow issue resulted in a second IL stint, with no set timetable for his return. Also, the Mets have used 18 starting pitchers, putting more pressure on the bullpen as the relief innings have piled up.

While the front office won’t admit that deGrom’s shaky status led to some restraint at the deadline, Baez was a splashy move that hasn’t done much but make his buddy Francisco Lindor happy.

Lindor is nearing a return from his five-week stay on the IL with an oblique strain, so it’s not impossible that he could team with Baez to revive the Mets for the stretch run. But their absence during this pivotal 13-game stretch against the Dodgers and Giants is brutal timing; the Mets are 1-8 through the first nine.

"These things can build up. Sometimes it can destroy a team," Rojas said after Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Dodgers that dropped the Mets below .500. (Friday night’s 3-2 loss and Saturday’s 4-3 loss to L.A. put the Mets at 60-63). "We’re going through stress that we haven’t gone through throughout the entire season."

That’s for sure. Not only did Scott recently call out the players for "non-compliance" in terms of following health protocols — hydration issues mostly — but owner Steve Cohen took his own shot Tuesday morning with a tweet ripping the Mets’ lack of discipline at the plate.

"It’s hard to understand how professional hitters can be this unproductive," Cohen tweeted, in part.

No kidding. A lot of what’s happened with the Mets and Yankees during the second half of this season has been difficult to comprehend. It’s as good an excuse as any for being so wrong about both teams in early July. Then again, there’s still six weeks left.

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.