NEW YORK — The first time Gerrit Cole faced the Mets this season, the Yankees ace was making just his second start of the year after elbow inflammation delayed his 2024 debut.

Pitching at Citi Field on June 25, Cole surrendered four home runs in a 9-7 Yankees loss. But he was still building up as the Mets pounced on his lacking fastball that night, so the poor start wasn’t necessarily as important as the pitcher’s progression.

“He’s kind of finding his gauge out there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that evening. “He’s not all the way built up out of spring, and he is coming back from an injury and being down. So the buildup matters.”

No such grading curve or excuses existed on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, where Cole took the mound fresh off the two best starts of his young season. Still, the Mets pummeled the reigning Cy Young award winner for the second time in as many months while sweeping the season’s Subway Series with a 12-3 win.

This time, the Mets only hit three homers off of Cole. No. 9 hitter Tyrone Taylor started the Mets’ onslaught with a solo shot in the third to tie the game at one. Pete Alonso then gave the Mets a 3-2 lead with a two-run blast, his 20th of the year.

Francisco Lindor matched that figure with his own two-run homer in the fifth frame. That ball landed in the second deck out in right field.

The barrage didn’t end there, as Taylor added an RBI single off Cole in the sixth. That knock ended Cole’s night after 5 2/3 innings, eight hits, six earned runs, two walks, four strikeouts and 100 pitches.

Boos soundtracked the righty’s trip to the dugout, where he could also be seen expressing his frustration.

The Mets scored six more runs in the eighth, as Mark Vientos homered off Tim Hill to start the inning. Jeff McNeil then doubled on a ball that Aaron Judge misread. With Caleb Ferguson on the mound, the Mets then scored another run on an Oswaldo Cabrera throwing error before Lindor homered again. This time, he produced a three-run shot.

A Vientos sacrifice fly off Yoendrys Gómez gave the Mets a 12th run for good measure.

Prior to that, Sean Manaea enjoyed a shorter but more successful night than Cole.

The Mets starter logged 4 2/3 innings, three hits, two earned runs, four walks, four strikeouts and 103 pitches. While he wasn’t perfect, the Mets’ decision to throw a lefty at the Yankees worked for the fourth time this season.

The Bombers actually took an early lead against Manaea, as Gleyber Torres hit his first-career leadoff homer in his return to the one-hole. Juan Soto provided another jack in the third, taking a 443-foot trip to Monument Park with the bases empty.

Upon making contact, Soto immediately turned toward Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez. The two have gotten to know each other well over the years, and so Soto smiled at the backstop before trotting around the bases.

An Austin Wells single gave the Yanks an extra run in the ninth, but it was the Mets who were grinning at the end of the night after taking two games in the Bronx. They also swept the Subway Series for the second time after also doing it in 2013.

With the loss, the Yankees are now 15-25 since June 7. They had baseball’s best record before that, but only the woeful White Sox have been worse since.

With the Orioles enduring a skid as well, the Yankees are lucky to only be 1.5 games out of first place. However, they’ve been playing brutal baseball for well over a month.

Boone and players have repeatedly expressed faith in the team’s ability to turn things around, but those sentiments are becoming harder to believe with each new ugly loss. Upgrades could come before the July 30 trade deadline, but even then, the Yankees have more holes than they can realistically fill in just a few days.

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