A team playing for the playoffs seemed more inspired than a team playing for pride. 

Or maybe motivation wasn’t a factor and Cam Schlittler’s power was simply overwhelming when matched against the Mets’ second-half pluck. 

Regardless of the reasoning, the Yankees showed why they will play far bigger series this season than the September Subway Series, which marked the last meaningful weekend of the schedule for the Mets. 

Schlittler was dominant to carry a lineup that consisted of just two meaningful swings in a 2-0 shutout of the Mets in front of 45,508 in The Bronx on Sunday afternoon, when the Yankees did not clinch a playoff spot but did claim a set from their red-hot, playing-for-nothing neighbors. 

“Special weekend for the city,” said Schlittler, who watched the Sept. 11 commemoration Friday and then heard Mets fans revel in a blowout win Saturday. “… It was a little frustrating [Saturday] just hearing all the Mets chants. 

“I wanted to make sure I could come in here today and kind of shut that down.” 

The Yankees (86-63) won a fifth out of six, narrowed their magic number to one to clinch a playoff spot and remained four games behind the Rays in the AL East, while the Mets (69-80) have gone 22-14 since a trade deadline in which they waved goodbye to much of their club and waved a white flag. 

Since Aug. 3, Mets season has taken on a different hue, with development more important than details like the score (and yet they have surged). 

Against the front-runner for the American League Cy Young — and perhaps MVP, which would be a rarity that several (though not Aaron Judge) on the Yankees endorsed after Schlittler’s latest gem — Sunday was an opportunity for growth. 

“Anytime you go up against the best, you actually should smile and enjoy the challenge of it,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said, though if there were any smiles Schlittler would have used his heat to erase those, too. 

The young righty was the best pitcher on the day and in the series, bulldozing through the sizzling Mets lineup through six scoreless, one-hit innings in which the Mets never really threatened — apart from accidentally threatening Schlittler’s health. 

His last batter of the matinee was Bo Bichette, who smashed a 111.5 mph comebacker off Schlittler’s right hamstring in a moment that evoked Spencer Jones vs. Clay Holmes. 

“Hard hit, so, it’ll be a fun couple days trying to get that recovered,” said Schlittler, who added that he believed he would make his next start. “I think we’re in a good spot.” 

Apart from the end of the top of the sixth, when Austin Wells grabbed the ricochet and threw out Bichette, Schlittler inflicted more pain than he felt while striking out eight and lowering his ERA to 1.95. Only three qualified Yankees pitchers since 1913 have finished a season with ERAs under 2.00: Spud Chandler (1.64 in 1943), Ron Guidry (1.74 in 1978) and Ray Caldwell (1.95 in 1914). 

The usual trio — Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn and David Bednar, who struck out a heavily booed Juan Soto in the ninth — locked down a game in which the Mets barely mounted a semblance of a rally, with just two at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and the Yankees’ scoring meant a pair of swings from Ben Rice and Wells. 

Against a solid Christian Scott (six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, two walks), the Yankees only managed three hits, but two of those left the park. 

The first arrived on Scott’s fifth pitch, Rice hooking a splitter that did not dive enough, sending it 333 feet to take advantage of the short porch. 

“They snuck one out at about 315 feet,” Green said after Rice’s 38th dinger of the season. “Would have been nice if we had done that as well.” 

The Yankees lead doubled in the third, when an ice-cold Wells, who entered the at-bat in an 0-for-20 slide, turned on an up-in-the-zone four-seamer and clobbered it to the second deck in right. 

Virtually anything Wells offers offensively is a bonus considering the caliber of arms he is catching. 

“I think ‘valuable’ is a good word — he might be the MVP, too,” Aaron Boone said when asked about Schlittler’s value to the team. “He’s been awesome. … I think it’s got the feel a little bit of: You want to be here seeing it on the day he goes to the mound.”