Mets use speed to topple Tribe

Associated Press

cleveland

When Jose Reyes gave his third-base coach the runaround, the Cleveland Indians never had a chance.

Reyes ran through a stop signal from Chip Hale, racing around him to score from second base on an infield single to help Johan Santana and the New York Mets to a 7-6 win over the error-prone Indians on Tuesday night.

“They say speed kills and tonight it did,” Reyes said of his nifty scamper that helped New York overcome a 4-1 deficit to earn its fifth consecutive win. The Mets are 10-2 in June.

“One thing we can bring every game is speed,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. “When Reyes gets on, he can be disruptive. The top of our lineup can run and we like to use it.”

Reyes was not about to deny Santana (5-3) enough run support.

The left-hander (5-3) won for the first time in four starts. The included two no-decisions when he didn’t yield a run over 15 innings in consecutive outings.

He gave up four runs and seven hits over seven innings and struck out only one, but earned his first win since beating the New York Yankees in another interleague game on May 23.

“It’s always great to get runs,” Santana said. “I made some mistakes early, but tried to stay aggressive. Then I threw strikes and tried to protect the lead.”

Santana dominated Cleveland early in his career with the Minnesota Twins, but went 0-5 against them in his final year in the AL in 2007 before being dealt to New York.