Those Mets

PAGAN GUIDES METS TO ANOTHER SERIES WIN

NEW YORK HAS WON 17 OF 21

Angel Pagan drove in three runs with three hits to help the New York Mets stretch their winning streak to six games by beating the Cleveland Indians 8-4 Wednesday night. All nine batters in the Mets' starting lineup had a hit. New York has won 10 of 11 and is a major league-best 17-5 since May 21 to move from last place in the NL East to challenging for first place. Jonathon Niese (4-3) won his third straight start, extending the Mets' string of strong pitching during their streak. New York starters are 16-3 with a 2.61 ERA over 27 games since May 17. The left-hander, coming off a one-hit shutout of San Diego on Thursday for his first complete game, gave up three runs and eight hits over seven innings. In three starts in June, Niese is 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA. In his last three starts before going on the disabled list from May 17 to June 4 with a strained right hamstring, he was 0-1 with an 8.76 ERA. New York tied a season high with seven doubles, two by Ike Davis. Following a 7-4 loss Tuesday in which Cleveland infielders failed to make some routine plays during a five-run Mets rally, the Indians outfield didn't distinguish itself in New York's five-run third. The Mets strung together six straight one-out hits, including four consecutive doubles off Mitch Talbot (7-5). Ruben Tejada singled and took third on a single to right by Jose Reyes. Pagan began the carousel of doubles with a line drive to left, scoring Tejada for a 1-0 lead. David Wright then doubled over the head of leftfielder Shelley Duncan, the ball landing on the warning track as the speedy Reyes and Pagan easily scored. Next, Ike Davis drove a ball to left and Duncan turned left, then right, before lunging and missing it as Wright scored. ad_icon Jason Bay doubled home Davis to make it 5-0 with a drive to left-center, just out of the reach of diving center fielder Austin Kearns. Duncan's two-out, two-run homer on a full count in the bottom half made it 5-2. Jason Donald doubled and scored on a two-out single by Indians rookie Carlos Santana in the fifth. Santana was thrown out trying for a double. Jeff Francoeur had an RBI double and Pagan a two-run single in the sixth to put the Mets ahead 8-3. Talbot gave up eight runs and 13 hits over 5 2-3 innings. NOTES: Bay left in the sixth with a left thigh bruise. The Mets' LF tripped over the first-base bag beating out a second-inning single. ... The Mets have scored 34 runs (6.8 per game) during a five-game road winning streak. They averaged 4.1 in their first 26 road games, going 8-18. ... Indians OF Trevor Crowe sat out with a sore right knee. He fouled a ball of it Saturday night. ... Cleveland pitchers Justin Masterson, David Huff and Hector Ambriz put on an impressive home-run display during batting practice, but manager Manny Acta expects to give the bunt sign to his hurlers a lot during an upcoming nine-game stretch in NL ballparks. "The better you are bunting, swinging the bat and running the bases, that's going to stop the manager from taking you out of the game," Acta said. "If I know a guy isn't capable of bunting, that's probably going to shorten his outing." ... New York improved to 24-6 when Reyes scores a run. (Washington Post)