Those Mets

REYES, DICKEY GUIDE METS TO SERIES WIN

STILL THE HOTTEST TEAM IN BASEBALL, METS SHUT OUT TIGERS

Before Wednesday night's game, R.A. Dickey was on a clubhouse computer looking up statistics about the Tigers. After the number he did on Detroit, people may be looking up his stats today. The righthander fired eight scoreless innings at one of the American League's most formidable lineups as the Mets prevailed, 5-0, before 35,045 in Flushing. Dickey won his sixth straight six start and is now 6-0 with a 2.33 ERA. Jose Reyes went 3-for-4, coming a double short of hitting for the cycle. He tripled to lead off the first and got stranded. He singled in the third and scored on David Wright's double for a 1-0 lead. He homered in the fifth to make it 2-0. The Mets have won 14 of 17 and continue to prove their legitimacy. Six victories off lowly Baltimore and Cleveland helped their won-loss record and confidence, but back-to-back wins against a strong team such as Detroit say a lot more. The win did not come without its moment of concern however. In the seventh inning, when the Mets scored three times to break the game open, Jesus Feliciano came in to pinch-hit for Angel Pagan, who Jerry Manuel says had spasms in his side and expects him to miss just one day. Feliciano grounded out to second with the bases loaded, bringing in the Mets' third run with his first career RBI. Dickey has been a godsend to a rotation that looked in dire straits with Jon Niese out injured and Oliver Perez and John Maine underachieving as the Mets never expected. The guy has done nothing but win and eat up innings. He has gone at least six innings in each of his seven starts since the Mets brought him up from Triple-A Buffalo on May 19. Six of the starts have been quality starts. His six straight wins are a career best. The eight-inning effort Wednesday night stands out as the best in the group this season. He gave up four hits, issued two walks, struck out four and retired the last 13 batters he faced. Frankie Rodriguez worked a scoreless ninth to finish the game. While there were plenty of baserunners on against Dickey in the first four innings, the biggest jam he faced was in the first. He walked Ramon Santiago and gave up a single to Magglio Ordoñez with one out. He loaded the bases on a two-out walk to Brennan Boesch. But he escaped by getting Carlos Guillen to ground out to second base. In the third inning he gave up a leadoff single to Johnny Damon, who stole second and took third on a sacrifice by Santiago. Dickey escaped by getting Ordoñez and Miguel Cabrera to ground out. A fourth-inning single was the last baserunner he allowed. Reyes is batting a blistering .372 since May 20 and the Mets are 28-7 - an .800 winning percentage - when he scores a run. It was the 165th time that Reyes scored a run and drove in a run and the club is 99 games over .500, 132-33, in those contests. After Feliciano's RBI groundout made it 3-0, Wright walked to load the bases. Ike Davis plated two insurance runs with a single to right field, but the rally ended when Wright was thrown out trying to go to third. It wasn't a save situation for Rodriguez, but Manuel is trying to use him with regularity to keep him at his sharpest. (NY Daily News)