Jacob deGrom walked off the mound shaking his head after completing Thursday’s sixth inning. It was the only one all night in which the perfectionist didn’t post a zero on the scoreboard.

The team co-ace’s fifth start since returning from the injured list was just as encouraging as the first four for the first-place Mets, who began a stretch of 20 of 23 games played against sub-.500 teams with a 3-1 win over the Rockies at Citi Field.

“Jake was great for us,” Pete Alonso said after the Mets’ got back on track after two Subway Series losses earlier to the Yankees. “Jake was awesome for us, and it’s great to have him back.”

Working with two extra days of rest since his previous outing last Thursday, deGrom retired the first 12 batters he faced and departed with a 3-1 lead after six innings. The two-time Cy Young winner allowed one run on three hits with one walk and nine strikeouts over an 87-pitch effort, a handful shy of his season-high of 95 last week against the Braves.

Alonso belted a two-run homer in support of deGrom, who improved to 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA over five starts since returning from the injured list this month.

Leon Edwards dropped Kamaru Usman with a kick to the head and neck in the final minute of the fifth round to win the welterweight championship at UFC 278 on Saturday night.

Usman appeared to be seconds away from a 16th consecutive victory, which would have tied an all-time UFC record, before Edwards came up with the stunning finish just in time. He delivered the knockout blow with 56 seconds left in the bout.

“That crosshead kick landed perfectly,” Edwards said.

Edwards (20-3) is undefeated dating back to his previous bout with Usman in 2015. The British fighter rose to No. 2 in the welterweight division while accumulating nine wins in that stretch ahead of the title bout.

Usman (20-2) lived up to his reputation as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world for much of the bout. The Nigerian weathered a late first-round takedown and turned the tables with a late second-round takedown. Usman controlled position throughout the third round, earning two more takedowns, and led 39-37 on the judges’ scorecards after four rounds. He appeared on his way to a win by unanimous decision before Edwards rallied in the final round.

“The octagon belongs to nobody,” Edwards said. “No man is meant to hold the belt for that long. I said all week I felt like this was my moment. This is how it was meant to play out.”

If this is what the regular season Subway Series was like, then imagine the Yankees and Mets meeting in October for baseball’s biggest prize.

“You’d like to think ahead a little bit, because of the pace they’re on and where we’re at, too,” Aaron Judge said, “but we got to get there first.”

Judge hit a 453-foot drive halfway up the bleachers for his major league-leading 48th home run and added an RBI single during a seventh-inning rally, boosting the New York Yankees past the Mets on Tuesday night for their second straight 4-2 win and a two-game sweep.

The Yankees turned a pair of sparkling 6-4-3 double plays, Andrew Benintendicame through with another big hit and rookie right fielder Oswaldo Cabrera made three key contributions. The go-ahead rally was boosted by a fluky popup that dropped for a single, and fans stood for nearly 20 minutes in the ninth inning anticipating the final out.

Francisco Lindor lofted Wandy Peralta’s changeup for a routine fly to center, stranding the bases loaded and ending as scintillating a regular-season game as you’ll see.

“We hope that we do the things it takes to get a chance to hopefully come back to this place,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said.