Mets hang on for four-game sweep of Reds

CINCINNATI -- The Mets were hot here this week. (Well, everyone was, with humid temperatures daily in the mid-90s along the Ohio River.) More to the point, the Mets were ascendant in the House of Alderson, apparently working with some sort of astrological chart foreseeing life after Carlos Beltran.

Not that there weren't some sweaty palms to go along with the general perspiration as the Mets held off the Reds, 10-9, Thursday to complete their first four-game sweep in Cincinnati.

What manager Terry Collins said the team would most need, now that Beltran's bat is gone, is dominant pitching -- and there wasn't much of that Thursday, for either side. The Mets rapped 14 hits, Cincinnati 13, as they played just short of 3 1/2 hours.

"For us to continue to move forward," Collins said, "it still comes down to our pitching. If we pitch, I think, even without Carlos, we'll get enough runs that we'll keep ourselves in the ballgame. But we've got to pitch."

The "just enough runs" part, at least, held up Thursday, and almost every Met got in on the act -- with the notable exception of the league's leading hitter, Jose Reyes, who fell to .343 after going 0-for-4 with a walk and didn't score a run.

Jason Bay and Beltran's right-field heir, Lucas Duda, drove in three runs apiece -- both with bases-loaded doubles. Bay, David Wright and Angel Pagan each had three hits.

Back-to-back four-run innings in the fourth and fifth put the Mets ahead 9-3, but Cincinnati kept roaring back as the Mets went through the pitching troops -- winner Chris Capuano (9-10) for 51/3 innings followed by Manny Acosta, Pedro Beato, Bobby Parnell and Jason Isringhausen.

Collins blamed himself for leaving Capuano in the game a couple of batters too long as Cincinnati built a four-run rally in the sixth.

After Capuano surrendered Ramon Hernandez's RBI double and walked Todd Frazier, Acosta's first pitch was knocked over the leftfield wall by pinch hitter Miguel Cairo for a three-run homer that cut the Mets' lead to 9-7.

"Bad pitch," Collins said.

Logan Ondrusek's wild pitch with two outs in the top of the ninth allowed Pagan to score an insurance run before Joey Votto's homer on Isringhausen's first pitch made it 10-9. Isringhausen retired the next three batters for his fourth save.

With temperatures soaring toward 100, the Mets nevertheless stuck with their black jerseys -- Collins doesn't like to change colors when things are going well -- and survived the weather, the Reds and the emotions of losing Beltran.

"We're drained," Collins said. "These guys are playing on nothing but game adrenaline. They're wiped out physically, they're wiped out emotionally. From everything. The weather, and waiting. Seeing what's going to happen a lot of times takes away from the game. But that's what being in the big leagues is.

"This is one time you got to step back, take a deep breath and say, 'OK, we're going to finish the rest of it. We've got to grind it out and finish the rest of it.' What's another 55, 60 games?"

Even with the Beltran issue dominating recent public discussions, Capuano argued that this road trip provided a welcome and helpful togetherness for the players left behind by the deal. "I feel great about where this team's energy is and where the chemistry is," he said.

Maybe that's how the Mets pulled off their first four-game sweep in Cincinnati.

"We need wins," Collins said. "I can't worry about records and streaks."