Underdogs or not, the Rangers have reinserted themselves into this second-round series against the Hurricanes in convincing fashion.

After dropping the first two games of Round 2 on the road, the Rangers effectively protected home ice and evened the series at two-all with a win in Game 3 and then an inspiring 4-1 victory over the Hurricanes in Game 4 Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden to send this matchup back to Raleigh, N.C., looking a lot different than it did at the start.

In New York, the Rangers have stifled Carolina’s usually cohesive team game. They have worked for the right balance of scoring and a defensively sound structure. And as a result, the Rangers have quickly turned this into a competitive series.

Oh, and the Hurricanes are now 0-5 on the road this postseason.

“It’s huge to get the series back to even,” said Ryan Lindgren, who recorded his first career multi-point playoff game with two assists in the win. “Even the first two games in Carolina, we played good hockey. We’ve been a confident group all year.”

Without both of their trophy-winning aces — and three of their top six starters altogether — the undeterred Mets continued to rack up wins at Citi Field.

Max Scherzer joined fellow multi-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom on the injured list, but the Mets overcame a blown save by Edwin Diaz on Pete Alonso’s two-run homer in the 10th for an exhilarating 7-6 win over the Cardinals at Citi Field.

Diaz couldn’t preserve a 5-4 lead for starter Chris Bassitt in the ninth. With runners on the corners and two outs, third baseman Eduardo Escobar couldn’t come up with what was ruled an infield single for Paul Goldschmidt to tie the score. The go-ahead run against Colin Holderman in the 10th scored on a double-play grounder by retiring star Albert Pujols in likely his final at-bat in Flushing.

But with Francisco Lindor serving as the automatic runner at second base, Alonso crushed Cardinals closer Giovanny Gallegos’ 1-0 slider into the second deck in left for his third career walk-off homer.

It’s hard to pick who’s on a better run right now, the Yankees or Aaron Judge.

Judge, with chants of “MVP” growing louder by the at-bat, even with the Yankees on the road at Camden Yards, homered twice on Tuesday, as the Yankees continued their torrid start with a 5-4 win over the Orioles.

The Yankees have won eight of their past nine games and improved to 27-9 for the first time since, you guessed it, 1998.

Judge was a menace throughout the game — his first four-hit game of the season — and was prevented from hitting three homers by the new left-field wall that’s deeper and higher than in the past in Baltimore.