A baseball detective delving into what was wrong with the New York teams would not find just one single failure.

Nevertheless, the clues do lead to specific core failings: The Mets had a pitching problem and the Yankees a hitting one.

The Mets were 27-4 in the first half when they simply produced a six-inning start. Mind you, not a quality start. Just a starter covering six innings. It enabled the Mets to better protect an overworked, underwhelming bullpen.

The problem is they had just 31 starts covering six innings, which ranked as the 23rd-most in the majors. That was tied with the Yankees, who were better equipped to handle shorter starts because their pitching program — from acquisition to development to deployment — had produced so many bullpen success stories. However, even the Yankees pen has seemed to fade with overuse lately.