Mickey Togs

It wasn’t a perfect day — Jameson Taillon fell six outs short of that — but it was pretty satisfying.

The Yankees’ long Thursday included a beat-down, a brush with history, dominant starting pitching and some dramatics.

Most importantly, the end result was two wins, 6-1 and 2-1, over the Angels in a split-admission doubleheader in The Bronx as the Yankees (36-15), who have the best record in baseball, swept a three-game series in impressive fashion.

Pinch-hitter Anthony Rizzo’s two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning of Game 2, after the Yankees had gone 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, made a winner out of Taillon, who pitched seven perfect innings before finally allowing a hit, and then a run, in the eighth.

“I was fired up,” Taillon said. “It just felt like one of those nights where we were going to make it happen.”

Saquon Barkley likes being a New York Giant. 

Three years after former general manager Dave Gettleman delivered an infamous line about Odell Beckham Jr.’s trade market that turned out to be misleading, the Giants are back at the NFL Scouting Combine with another injury-plagued star caught up in trade rumors. 

That, however, is where the comparison ends. 

Barkley’s strong preference is to stay with the Giants even as they start another rebuilding process, according to a source. A handful of agents, coaches, scouts and executives surveyed in Indianapolis agreed the Giants would need to be blown away to trade away Barkley, who is still the face of the franchise. 

General manager Joe Schoen, who replaced Gettleman in January, said the Giants are “open to everything” in response to a question that singled out Barkley. That answer was misconstrued in some corners of the viral news vortex to make it sound as if Barkley was being shopped, which is not the case. 

The Mets are going to retire Keith Hernandez’s No. 17 during a ceremony on Saturday, July 9, prior to a game with the Marlins.

Hernandez, the lynchpin of the Mets’ 1986 world championship team, joins Casey Stengel (37), Gil Hodges (14), Tom Seaver (41), Mike Piazza (31) and Jerry Koosman (36) to be so honored.

Hernandez played for the Mets from 1983-89, acquired from the Cardinals in a trade on June 15, 1983. He hit .297 as a Met and won five Gold Gloves as a first baseman in New York. In 1984, he finished second to Ryne Sandberg in the NL MVP vote, hitting .311 with 97 RBIs.

He shared the 1979 MVP Award with Willie Stargell, hitting .344 with 105 RBIs for St. Louis, and was also a key member of the Cardinals’ 1982 World Series winner.

Hernandez was elected to the Mets Hall of Fame in 1997.