NOT SO WRIGHT: David Wright reacts after striking out in the ninth inning of last night’s 6-5 Yankees victory over the Mets. (Anthony J. Causi)
Nice try by the Mets, but the other team wasn’t clucking around.
In an all too familiar pattern over two chapters of the 2012 Subway Series, the Mets were right there with a chance in the late innings last night. And then the Yankees unleashed the whooping stick against a suspect bullpen.
“Not too bad for a bunch of chickens,” Nick Swisher said after Robinson Cano’s eighth-inning solo homer accounted for the final run in the Yankees’ 6-5 victory over the Mets before a record crowd of 42,364 at Citi Field.
Frank Francisco, who referred to the Yankees as “chickens” in The Post last week, was placed on the disabled list with a strained left oblique before the game and was an afterthought as the Mets lost two of three games in the weekend series and five of six overall against the Yanks this year.
The anticipated CC Sabathia-R.A. Dickey pitching showdown never materialized, as Dickey surrendered four runs in the third inning and Sabathia was victimized by defensive flubs that led to four unearned runs.
“It didn’t quite live up to the billing, but golly, I’m so proud of our guys — we scrapped,” Dickey said. “I didn’t have a great knuckleball. It was coming out wobbly and I was searching for it through the innings.
“I’d love to face them again. What a challenge. I think any competitor would jump to go after a lineup like that [again], and we might get a chance.”
The Yankees out-homered the Mets 15-4 in the six games. Cano’s blast against Miguel Batista helped atone for an earlier error that led to the Mets scoring three runs to tie the game.
“They’ve got great power, but we don’t seem to make pitches when we need to make them,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “They hit balls out of the ballpark like there is nothing to it.”
Collins indicated lefty Tim Byrdak wasn’t used to face Cano because the bullpen was thin and he didn’t want to burn multiple relievers in the inning.
Dickey, who had pitched consecutive one-hitters, making him the toast of baseball, was finished after allowing five earned runs on five hits and three walks over six innings. The knuckleballer’s streak of innings without allowing an earned run was snapped at 44 2/3, when the Yankees scored four times in the third.
The Mets came charging in the sixth, with three unearned runs against Sabathia, after a Cano fielding error, to make it 5-5. Ruben Tejada, in his return from a seven-week stint on the disabled list, delivered an RBI single that tied the game as part of an inning in which the Mets sent nine batters to the plate.
Sabathia was finished in the sixth, after Andres Torres’ two-run single sliced the Yankees’ lead to 5-4. Sabathia walked pinch hitter Vinny Rottino with two outs to load the bases and keep the inning alive. Rottino then appeared to shield Mark Teixeira on Torres’ grounder, allowing the ball to skip through to right field for two runs.
Sabathia’s final line included nine hits and two walks allowed over 5 2/3 innings. Of the five runs he allowed four were unearned — catcher Chris Stewart’s throwing error in the third also contributed to a run.
Teixeira’s sacrifice fly in the third ended Dickey’s streak of innings without an earned run — Dwight Gooden still owns the franchise record with 49 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run in 1985 — before Nick Swisher hit a three-run homer.
mpuma@nypost.com