By ABBEY MASTRACCO

New York Daily News (TNS)

In the battle between the best pitching staff in baseball and the best offense, the big bats in the Bronx prevailed. The Yankees ruled baseball in New York City on Friday night and showed Juan Soto what he left behind in a 6-2 win over the Mets.

Yankee Stadium has never been known as a friendly place, but it’s a place where loyalty is valued over just about everything other than winning. With Soto returning for the first time since Game 5 of the World Series, Yankee fans showed the right fielder exactly how they felt about his decision to leave for a 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets.

They booed him loudly throughout every plate appearance. In turn, Soto tipped his helmet to the sellout crowd of 47,700, the fourth-largest Yankee Stadium crowd of the season.

“We were joking in the dugout that I should do it, so I just did it,” Soto said. “The guys loved it.”

When he ran out to the outfield wearing orange and blue, the Bleacher Creatures turned around, refusing to acknowledge a player who was crucial in the Yankees’ AL pennant win last fall. Some gave him the finger, some yelled “traitor,” others yelled things that aren’t suitable for print.

Soto barely noticed, intentionally avoiding eye contact with fans. But don’t worry, he heard the boos.

“You’ve got to embrace it at the end of the day,” he said. “Whatever they give you, you’ve got to be a professional. You’ve got to take it like a man. I was just enjoying the moment.”

It was nothing the Mets didn’t already expect. Fans in the city spent the better part of the offseason debating Soto’s decision to leave the Yankees after only one season for the upstart rival in Queens. They’ve spent the better part of the season already debating whether or not he even likes his new team.

Soto scored the first run for the visitors in the fourth inning. The Yankees had already beat up on an ineffective Tylor Megill in the bottom of the third and took a 4-0 lead when left-hander Carlos Rodon issued a leadoff walk to Soto. Brandon Nimmo drove him home on a one-out single to left before the Mets loaded the bases, and Rodon got out of the jam. The Mets made Rodon work. They made him throw a lot of pitches and were able to knock him out after five innings and 102 pitches, but he left with the lead intact, limiting the Mets to one earned run on two hits. He walked four and struck out five in the win (5-3).

Megill turned in his worst start of the season. Pitching to his historical pattern of being dominant in April before turning into a completely different pitcher in May, the big right-hander was fine through the first two innings before losing the strike zone and failing to make it through the third.

The Yankees batted around in the bottom of the third. Starting with a leadoff single by No. 9 hitter Jorbit Vivas, Aaron Judge was walked with one out to put two on.

Paul Goldschmidt hit a broken-bat single to Francisco Lindor, who spun and threw to Pete Alonso at first for the out, bouncing the ball in front of Alonso’s glove. Vivas and Judge both scored.

“He didn’t throw enough strikes,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza. “When you’re doing against an offense like these guys, they’re going to make you pay.”

Megill then walked Jasson Dominguez and a fly ball to right by Anthony Volpe scored Bellinger, with Soto’s throw to Francisco Alvarez coming home too late. Austin Wells walked to load the bases and Oswald Peraza did the same to bring in another run. The Mets (28-17) then went to right-hander Max Kranick, who retired Vivas on one pitch.

“I feel like I made some good quality offspeed pitches trying to implement some chase,” Megill said. “But my fastball was kind of all over today, so it wasn’t too well.

The Yankees (26-19) scored twice more in the fourth, with Kranick being charged with both runs.

“That was really fun to be a part of,” said Bellinger, who went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored in his first Subway Series game. “It was as loud as the stadium was full. And really, any Friday night Yankee Stadium so far has been really fun to be a part of, but this just was full of energy.”

In March and April, Megill has a career ERA of 2.45, but in May and June it’s 6.41. It’s a confounding pattern for a pitcher who some around the Mets think has the best pure stuff. But when he can’t get ahead of hitters, he can’t execute pitches the way he wants to.

“I thought he kept going to that slider in that inning and he couldn’t throw it for strikes,” Mendoza said. “I think it’s as easy as filling up the zone with quality pitches, and he didn’t do that tonight.”

Soto went 0-for-2 with three walks. His final at-bat: An anticlimactic pop up to center field for the third out in the ninth. The Mets rallied for one run against right-hander Yerry De los Santos.