Yankees roll past Mets 5-0

NEW YORK – The Yankees are turning this Subway Series into a monumental mismatch.

A.J. Burnett combined with two relievers on a one-hitter, Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada made Citi Field seem small with opposite-field homers, and the Yankees rolled past the Mets again, 5-0 Saturday night.

Alex Cora got the Mets’ only hit, lining a clean single to center on a 0-1 pitch leading off the sixth. He had been 0 for 21 with eight strikeouts against Burnett.

The depleted Mets, playing with center fielder Carlos Beltran, shortstop Jose Reyes and first baseman Carlos Delgado on the disabled list, didn’t reach base after Cora. They’ve been outscored 14-1 and outhit 22-4 in the first two games of the weekend series.

Burnett (6-4) struck out a season-high 10 in seven innings and walked three. Brian Bruney and David Robertson each followed with a perfect inning before 41,302, the second straight record crowd at Citi Field and just the fourth sellout there this season.

Tim Redding (1-3) allowed five runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings.

The Yankees have won four of five against their crosstown rivals, clinching the season series for the first time since sweeping all six meetings in 2003, the last time they went to the World Series.

In their final meeting this regular season, Chien-Ming Wang (0-6) starts for the Yankees in search of his first win since June 15 last year, with the Mets pitching Livan Hernandez (5-2).

The Yankees have won four in a row after losing five of six, and remained four games behind AL East-leading Boston. The Mets dropped 1½ games behind first-place Philadelphia in the NL East.

Burnett beat Mets and Santana 15-0 on June 14 at new Yankee Stadium, allowing four hits – all singles – in seven scoreless innings. On April 14, his second start with the Yankees, he carried a no-hit bid into the seventh at Tampa Bay before Carl Crawford led off with a single on an 0-2 pitch.

Melky Cabrera had preserved this bid with a running, one-handed grab on the left-field warning track against Daniel Murphy starting the fifth. He made a leap to snap a drive over his shoulder before landing and, a few steps later, crashing to the wall.

Coming off a five-game suspension for throwing high and tight to Texas’ Nelson Cruz on June 2, Burnett was pitching on six days’ rest for just the second time this season.

CC Sabathia and Brett Tomko set the tone for the Yankees this weekend, combining on a three-hitter in Friday’s 9-1 win. The Yankees, too, were playing short-handed, but only temporarily. Captain Derek Jeter missed his second straight start with the flu, and left fielder Johnny Damon also was sick.

Just two opposite-field homers were hit in the first 37 games at Citi Field, by Washington’s Nick Johnson (April 24) and Adam Dunn (May 26). The Yankees hit three in two games, starting with Alex Rodriguez’s drive to right-center in the eighth inning Friday, the first by a right-handed batter.

Swisher sent a third-inning slider over the 15-foot, 8½-inch wall in left-center to put the Yankees ahead in this one. Eleven of Swisher’s 14 home runs this year have come on the road.

The Yankees broke it open with one out in the sixth, getting four hits on four consecutive pitches. Mark Teixeira doubled off the bottom of the wall in right-center and scored when Rodriguez singled to center. Robinson Cano doubled off the base of the fence in the left-field corner, and Posada finished Redding with a homer to left-center.