A June swoon that began with the Phillies came full circle for the Mets, who traveled down the New Jersey Turnpike to finish off the month with a four-game set in the City of Brotherly Love, beginning with a day-night doubleheader on Friday.

New York quickly served notice that any notions of their demise were greatly exaggerated.

Carlos Delgado homered and collected three hits in game one and John Maine pitched into the ninth inning in game two as the Mets improved to 4-0 against the Phillies in Philadelphia this year, sweeping a doubleheader, 6-5 and 5-2, at Citizens Bank Park.

Carlos Beltran belted two solo homers off Phillies starter Cole Hamels in the nightcap, as New York swept a twin-bill in Philadelphia for the first time 1980 to win for the seventh time in eight games overall.

The Mets had started the month 3-13 before finishing up an abbreviated nine-game homestand with a 6-3 record.

New York jumped ahead off Hamels (9-4) in the second inning of game two in a most unusual way.

With Shawn Green at third after doubling to lead off the inning, the southpaw fell behind 3-0 on Jose Reyes before firing a wild-pitch, ball four behind his back. The pitch not only allowed the first run to score, but it evoked a warning to both benches from home plate umpire Ron Kulpa.

Beltran (2-for-8, 2 HR, 2 RBI) blasted his first home run of the night leading off the third, but the Phillies responded in the bottom of the fourth on a sac fly by Chase Utley to cut the deficit to one.

Beltran struck again in the fifth, connecting on his 12th home run, and Damion Easley pushed the lead to 5-1 with his eighth home run, off reliever Geoff Geary in the seventh for a 5-1 lead.

Hamels would be removed after just five innings having surrendered three runs on five hits while walking five and striking out three. The 23-year-old is winless in his last three starts (0-2), allowing 10 runs and 16 hits in only 13 frames (6.92 ERA).

Maine (9-4), on the other hand, had no such problems, pitching to one batter in the ninth before allowing a leadoff double to Jimmy Rollins. Wagner would come on to retire the side, though he did make things a bit interesting by allowing an RBI single to Utley (2-for-6, 2 RBI) and a walk to Ryan Howard before striking out Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell to end the game.

Maine was charged with two runs – one earned – on four hits while striking out six without walking a batter to win his third straight start. The right-hander has allowed just four earned runs covering 22 1/3 innings (1.61 ERA) in that time.

New York’s first victory several hours earlier seemed to be a foregone conclusion as Hernandez (4-3) started the sixth with a commanding, 6-1, lead.

A two-run home run by Delgado (3-for-7, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) opened the scoring in the second and after Rowand sliced the lead to 2-1 with his 11th homer in the bottom of the inning, the Mets took control.

Reyes (4-for-8, SB, HR) blasted his fourth longball of the season in the third and New York tacked on three more runs off J.D. Durbin in the fourth, highlighted by ‘El Duque’s’ RBI single to left.

Ramon Castro, who scored with a belly flop on Hernandez’s single, had driven in his club’s fourth run of the game with a sharp single before moving to second on a walk.

Ricky Ledee, who had walked and moved to third on the run-scoring single, scored the third and final run of the inning on a wild pitch by Durbin (0-1).

The right-hander surrendered six runs on eight hits with two walks while fanning five over 4 2/3 innings. The outing actually lowered his ERA, from 94.50 to 21.94.

Philadelphia chipped away at the lead off ‘El Duque,’ who entered the sixth having retired 12 straight batters.

Pinch-hitter Chris Coste blasted his first home run of the year to start the frame and after Hernandez rebounded to get the next two batters, walks to Utley and Howard put the right-hander in some trouble.

However, he fought back to strike out Rowand for the final out, ending his afternoon having allowed two runs over six innings while walking two and striking out seven.

Wes Helms’ two-run homer off Guillermo Mota cut the lead to 6-4 in the seventh and pinch-hitter Pat Burrell’s two-out RBI single off Aaron Heilman sliced it to 6-5 in the eighth.

Wagner would end all hopes of a Phillies comeback, striking out the side in the ninth for his 16th save and the 340th of his career.

Winners in seven of their last eight games, the Mets (45-33) will look to push Philadelphia back even further in the standings and take their third straight series with a victory on Saturday. Jorge Sosa (6-4, 3.79) will get the call for his 11th start of the season and first against the Phils. The 30-year-old rebounded from two straight subpar performances to allow just one run over six innings against the Cardinals last Monday, though he wasn’t involved in the Mets eventual, 2-1 win. Sosa has faced Philadelphia nine times in his career (four starts) and owns a 2-1 record to go along with a 3.03 ERA.

After suffering a tough sweep at the hands of the division leaders on Friday, the Phillies (41-39) will try and bounce back behind a pitcher making his Major League debut. Left-hander J.A. Happ (NR) will toe the rubber for the first time in a big league uniform when he goes up against New York on Saturday. The 24-year-old was 1-2 with a 4.03 ERA in only three starts at Triple-A Ottawa after missing time with elbow tendinitis.

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