NEW YORK -- Even before taking the mound against the New York Yankees, Jacob deGrom was excited: Jay Bruce was in the lineup, a day after the Mets acquired him in a trade with Cincinnati.

"We're definitely pumped about it," deGrom said.

The right-hander pitched seven innings to extend his scoreless streak to 14, Alejandro De Aza and Travis d'Arnaud homered off Masahiro Tanaka, and the Mets' offense woke up in a 7-1 Subway Series win on Tuesday night.

Just like last season, the Mets hope a new bat will spark them to a second-half spurt.

"What we went through last year is pretty much what we're going through this year," d'Arnaud said. "We've all -- or most of us -- have experienced coming back and taking over."

Bruce went 0 for 4 and took a pair of called third strikes in his Mets debut, but his new team scored its most runs since July 7 and won for the second time in seven games.

Last in the NL in batting average, the Mets acquired the All-Star outfielder from the Reds on Monday in an attempt to replicate the spark Yoenis Cespedes provided after he was obtained at last year's trade deadline.

"A guy like that brings a lot of offense to this lineup," deGrom said.

Cespedes, who hasn't started since Saturday because of an injured quadriceps, pinch-hit and had a run-scoring infield single in a four-run seventh. He is expected to be the Mets' designated hitter on Wednesday when the series switches to the Bronx.

"The problem is that once I take a couple days off I feel better, but once I go full speed is when the pain returns," Cespedes said through a translator.

DeGrom (7-5) escaped a two-out jam in the first by striking out Didi Gregorius, then got out of runners-at-the-corners trouble in the second by fanning Tanaka, who had trouble picking up signs from Yankees third base coach Joe Espada.

The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year gave up just two hits after that and wound up pitching four-hit ball with eight strikeouts and one walk. He retired 12 in a row before Mark Teixeira's one-out double in the sixth. He also had two hits at the plate.

"Jake's had one start that we'd like to throw out in the last couple months. Otherwise, he's done what we expected him to," Mets manager Terry Collins said.

Jon Niese, reacquired by the Mets from Pittsburgh on Monday, finished with two-hit relief, allowing Gregorius' ninth-inning homer.

Alex Rodriguez, who said before the game he was "at peace with myself" if the rebuilding Yankees release him, was booed when he pinch-hit in the ninth and ended the game with a flyout.

Tanaka (7-4) lasted 6 1/3 innings and allowed eight hits and seven earned runs -- his most since coming to the major leagues in 2014 -- as his ERA rose to 3.46. He left the mound before Yankees manager Joe Girardi arrived.

"I saw the next pitcher coming out, so I just kind of walked toward Joe and gave him the ball," Tanaka said through a translator. "No bad intentions there."

De Aza hit a two-run homer in the third and d'Arnaud added a solo drive in the fifth, just the third home run of the season for each. Coming in, only two of the 12 home runs off Tanaka this year had been hit on the road.

The Yankees dropped to 53-53 in a season when finishing above .500 is one of the few goals remaining after they traded Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova.

"The only thing to do is focus on baseball," Gregorius said. "Whatever happened in those days is gone."

CROWDS

The crowd of 42,819 was the Mets' eighth sellout, their most in a season at Citi Field, which opened in 2009.

SPEEDY

Brett Gardner's first-inning trip around the bases Monday, when he was thrown out while trying for an inside-the-park home run, was the fastest in the majors this year at 14.89 seconds, according to Statcast. The previous fastest was 15.20 seconds by both the Dodgers' Yasiel Puig and Cleveland's Jason Kipnis.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mets: SS Asdrubal Cabrera was placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to Monday, with a strained patella tendon in his left knee. Collins said the injury was about as severe as the one that sidelined Cabrera for a little more than two weeks during spring training. OF Justin Ruggiano (strained left hamstring) also was put on the 15-day DL.

UP NEXT

LHP Steven Matz (8-7) starts for the Mets on Wednesday and RHP Chad Green (1-2) for the Yankees. Green, taking Nova's slot in the rotation, will be making his fourth start this season, his first since July 8. Matz beat the Yankees last September at Citi Field.