Mets beat Dodgers, move three over .500

LOS ANGELES -- Before Wednesday night's game, general manager Sandy Alderson described the next two weeks as "critical" in determining whether to keep the Mets together for a second-half run at the playoffs, however slight that chance might be.

The players also know they are running out of time, though July is only one week old. "I see where he's coming from," Mike Pelfrey said. "We've got to try to win every game over the next two weeks to keep everyone here."

So far, they're doing exactly that. Jose Reyes missed his fourth straight game with a left hamstring strain, but the Mets stayed undefeated in his absence in beating the Dodgers, 5-3.

"If you had told me you're going to win without Jose Reyes," Terry Collins said, "I would have said, 'How?' When he's out, when he went down, they said, hey, we've got to rally around each other and get it done because obviously the main guy is out of the mix."

Carlos Beltran had a pair of doubles and scored two runs, the second one coming on some creative work on the base paths. In the sixth inning, after Beltran reached on a leadoff double, he drew a bad throw on Daniel Murphy's fly ball to leftfield -- taking third -- and then scored on a wild pitch. When told it was a "Reyes Run" -- the kind he manufactures with his speed -- Beltran laughed.

"Somebody has to do it," Beltran said. "I have to sacrifice myself I guess. We need to find a way to score, and if it's me or [Angel] Pagan or whoever, somebody has to do it."

Lucas Duda went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and Ruben Tejada had a two-run double to help the Mets cope with the extended loss of Reyes. The All-Star shortstop said after Wednesday night's game a decision will be made about the disabled list at some point Thursday, so it's good that the Mets have convinced themselves they can win with him on the bench.

"I'm just happy we're able to win without him," Beltran said. "Every time you win without a guy like Jose, who is very valuable to a team, it shows you we don't only depend on one guy. I think we all depend on every single guy here."

Justin Turner added an insurance run with an RBI single -- again with two outs -- in the ninth inning as the Mets improved to three games over .500 (45-42) for the first time this season. On Thursday night, the Mets will go for their first four-game sweep of the Dodgers against Clayton Kershaw.

Jonathon Niese (8-7) allowed five hits and three runs in seven innings to improve to 6-3 with a 2.73 ERA in his last 10 starts since May 18. He struck out six and walked one. Bobby Parnell struck out two in his perfect eighth inning to set up Francisco Rodriguez, who picked up his 22nd save and 33rd game finished.

The Mets scored all five runs with two outs to raise their total for the season to 167, one behind the Phillies for the National League lead. In the first three games of this series, 10 of their 15 runs have come with two outs. Last week, in taking the series from the Tigers, the Mets scored 24 of their 32 runs with two outs.

Beltran was in the middle of both scoring opportunities as the Mets took a 4-1 lead. In the fourth inning, he led off with the first of his two doubles and scored two outs later when Duda pulled a double down the rightfield line.

Tejada stranded two that inning when he grounded out, but he redeemed himself in the sixth. Again, it was Beltran who ignited the rally by opening with a double, his NL-leading 26th of the season. And with Reyes still sidelined, Beltran showed that he also knows how to manufacture a run with his legs.

When Murphy followed with a fly ball to leftfield, Beltran took a sizable lead off second base, then bolted for third when Eugenio Velez -- a second baseman by trade -- threw over Juan Uribe's head for an error. With Duda at the plate, Hiroki Kuroda (6-10) fired a wild pitch that bounced toward the first-base side and allowed Beltran to score easily.

"You know that there's a guy out there who is not an outfielder, so all I was thinking was I'm going to put pressure," Beltran said. "I'm going to take five full-speed steps to third base and try to make him throw the ball. He felt the pressure."

Duda followed with a base hit anyway, and after Josh Thole slapped a single, Tejada ripped a two-run double into the right-centerfield gap. That raised Tejada's average to .314 (11-for-35) with runners in scoring position.

With Niese cruising to that point, a 4-1 lead appeared to be plenty. The Dodgers nicked him for a run in the fourth on Uribe's RBI groundout, but otherwise he had struck out six through five innings and seemed to be in control.

In the sixth, however, Niese lost some of that early momentum as the Dodgers clawed back to within 4-3. Rafael Furcal drew a leadoff walk -- the first issued by Niese -- and a base hit by Jamey Carroll set up Andre Ethier's RBI single.

The very next play resulted in a controversial call kept the rally alive, infuriated Niese and brought Collins from the dugout for an argument with first-base umpire Greg Gibson. Matt Kemp smacked a ground ball to Tejada that should have started a double play, and a nice turn by Turner got the relay to Duda before Kemp touched first.

But Gipson didn't see it that way. He called Kemp safe -- signaling before the ball even reached Duda -- and Collins hustled out for a discussion. On the mound, Niese was careful to yell while looking away from Gipson, and Collins gave up after only a few moments.

"In a situation like that," Niese said, "the game was on the line."

The next batter, Uribe, hit a sacrifice fly to left that trimmed the Mets' lead to 4-3, but Niese composed himself to get James Loney on a grounder to second that ended the threat.