Mets double up on Tribe for sixth consecutive win

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

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 on 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.

New York tied a season high with seven doubles, two by Ike Davis.

The Mets strung together six straight one-out hits in the third, 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.

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 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 52/3 innings.