A standout defensive center misplaying a fly ball, a sticky substance ejection, a straight steal of home, an uncommon shift violation and a walkoff hit along with a myriad of managerial decisions.

Those were some of the unique occurrences during the 140th and 141st regular season meeting between the Mets and Yankees. It was not a precursor to their next World Series encounter in October because if you’re purely basing it on current performances, the rematch of the 2000 tightly contested series is unlikely to occur in four months since the events of the past two nights left the Yankees at 39-30 and the Mets at an underwhelming 32-36.

Heading into the latest edition of the “Subway Series” the common refrain throughout various spheres centered around the perceived lack of buzz. It was an easy stance to take when both teams are missing their biggest stars for a few weeks that happen to coincide with the Yankees and Mets getting together on consecutive nights.

These were not necessarily the most aesthetically well played games but if they had been good chance, they might be boring unless there was a notable performance such as a no-hitter, a multi-homer game and so on.

Instead the latest games between the teams provided a buffet of interesting things that compensate for the absences of Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso.

On Tuesday, center fielder Brandon Nimmo misplayed a fly ball by rookie Anthony Volpe, who was already at the center of debate about whether he should be getting at-bats two-plus hours to the West of the Bronx in Scranton. Volpe hit a fly ball that Nimmo raced in for because he was shaded to left and the ball hit slightly off the heel of his glove and this play happened after unsurprisingly managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner reiterated his confidence in the shortstop.

An inning later, Drew Smith began getting ready for his 27th appearance. Then first base umpire Bill Miller began checking his hand and determined it was too sticky like how James Hoye made the same ruling on Domingo German May 16 in Toronto and how Phil Cuzzi felt the same about Max Scherzer on April 19 in Los Angeles.

Those things occurred in a 7-6 victory for the Yankees, which was clinched when Clay Holmes escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth as a late inning highlight of a game when the Mets came back against Max Scherzer, possibly left Luis Severino in a little too long before regaining the lead.

“One of those fun ones," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday. "Obviously the buzz around Mets-Yankees, and you can feel that in the building. To have a lot of really cool, big moments in that game and to have everyone have a hand in it, those are fun.”

A night later, aces Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole seemed to be the headline. Except after three hours and 17 minutes of not necessarily high quality, the former teammates were reduced to sidebars because of a wild series of events in the final four innings.

In a tie game, the Mets committed two errors in the seventh on plays involving Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

First, he was two steps safe after hitting a ground ball to shortstop Francisco Lindor but a throwing error by Jeff McNeil at second allowed the tiebreaking run to score. Then he stole second, took third on a throwing error and then when Brooks Raley was inattentive, he made the daring dash.

Except it seemed much easier than usual because by the time Raley was ready to release the ball, Kiner-Falefa was about halfway down the line and easily scored when the throw was rushed and caromed to the backstop. It was the kind of play that left him in disbelief that nobody was paying attention and that he actually pulled off the first by a Yankee since Jacoby Ellsbury against Matt Moore on April 22, 2016.

“I just can’t believe I did that in the big leagues, especially in this game.” Kiner-Falefa said.

That would have been the lead story, but the Mets tied it soon after Kiner-Falefa’s thievery. And then McNeil was called for a shift violation that he described as “ticky-tack.”

“I'm probably going to be the first one ever called on that and probably the last because it's so ticky-tack,” McNeil said with somewhat of a matter of fact tone.

Ultimately the second shift violation this season was deemed irrelevant, and the Mets wound up winning when Nimmo lofted a fly ball that sailed enough over right fielder Jake Bauers’ head. The ball bounced off the top of the wall and following some brief hesitancy, Eduardo Escobar tagged up, slid headfirst to end six hours, 36 minutes of action even that these rivals can produce like they did in the 1999 Matt Franco game or the 2020 Alonso game-ending homer with nobody in the building.

“Baseball’s funny like that,” Nimmo said. “It’ll work like that sometimes. Everything’s better when we win.”

The night devolved from ace pitchers to all sorts of wackiness and when the Mets won owner Steve Cohen expressed his feelings on social media in his first comment there since May 17.

“This was a crazy game,” Cohen tweeted “Too many mental mistakes but I will take it.”

And from a pure entertainment standpoint, more games like the last two even if there are a few mistakes along the way.