Sandy Alderson was on the phone last month talking up Steve Cohen’s commitment and resources, and the chance the owner gave the Mets for sustained success, when I asked the team president a question about the Yankees.

You know how it goes in this town. Any big-picture conversation about the Mets ultimately works its way over to the Yanks.

I asked Alderson if it is important for the team from Queens to eventually supplant the team from The Bronx as the city’s lead baseball tenant. He responded that he checks the Braves and Phillies scores every night before he gets to the Yankees score.

“My hope for the Mets,” Alderson said, “is not necessarily that we take over the city, because that would to some extent indicate a disrespect for Yankee fans who are as ardent in their love for the Yankees as Mets fans are for the Mets. What I would hope is that … over time we reach a status that I don’t think we have achieved to date as it relates to the Yankees. But I think we have that potential.”

And if the Mets are to reach that potential, they have to embrace a cold, hard fact of life on the pinstriped side of town:

Nothing matters except October.

Other than reaching October, of course.

In other words, the Mets are free to get swept by the Cubs and punt on September if they want, and treat the month more like a necessary evil than a valuable gateway to the postseason. They can even kick away the National League East title to Atlanta, as much as that would hurt a fan base that has had too much practice surrendering things to the Braves.

But only if the Mets are prepared to win their wild-card round series and then survive their likely NLDS duel with the Dodgers, the freight train they can avoid until the NLCS if they hold off Atlanta in their division.

Meanwhile, after the Braves cut the Mets a break with a loss in San Francisco, David Peterson needed only 29 pitches to unravel Wednesday night at Citi Field, where the Cubs scored six times in the first inning en route to the sweep-punctuating 6-3 victory. That left the home team with a 6-7 September record, with the seven losses coming against the Nationals, Pirates, Marlins, and Cubs, four teams that entered play Wednesday a combined 125 games below .500.

“It’s still there for us,” maintained Mets manager Buck Showalter. “I told the players today, ‘You control it.’ … We need to play better.”

The Mets really need to win at least three of the next four from Pittsburgh. But if they continue to treat baseball’s easiest closing schedule like it’s the Sunday back nine at Augusta National, no problem. Just as long as they string together a whole bunch of birdies in October.

“Finishing a good season is hard,” Showalter said.

He’s been consistent with that messaging, which has been the only thing consistent about his first-place team of late. The Mets have been all over the place in September, showing up one night and disappearing just as surely the next two or three.

They clearly want to hurry up and get this regular season over with.

“You know how many times mentally they’ve been challenged this year?” Showalter asked of his players. “We played a hundred-something games. Football and basketball and hockey, they laugh at the number of games we play.

“It’s tough. You keep going to that well, the mental, emotional well. … This is a repetition sport. It’s a routine, and sometimes it can wear on you.”

The Mets have looked worn out at times, which, again, is acceptable for now. They still have more victories than every big-league team not named the Dodgers and the Astros. They still have one of the best 1-2 pitching combinations in baseball history (Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer), the world’s best closer (Edwin Diaz), a premier home run hitter (Pete Alonso), a $341 million star at a signature position (shortstop Francisco Lindor), one of the best pure hitters in the game (Jeff McNeil), and a 66-year-old manager who has seen it all.

That sounds like enough to overcome the nonperformance of GM Billy Eppler’s trade-deadline acquisitions.

“We’re trying to get to that finish line and have a chance to be the last team standing,” Showalter said, “and all those goals are still there for us. … I think some good baseball’s ahead of us.”

But if that good baseball isn’t immediately ahead of the Mets, well, uninspiring Septembers have been overcome before — some at the Mets’ expense. The 2000 Yankees lost 15 of their final 18 regular-season games and beat the Mets in the World Series. The 2006 Cardinals went 12-17 after August ended and beat the Mets in the NLCS. The 2015 Royals lost 17 of 27 games in one September stretch and beat the Mets in the World Series.

Buck Showalter’s team still has the time and opportunity to make this right. The Mets can afford to be indifferent and ineffective this month … just as long as they make up for it next month.