Mets' little ball big again in 8-5 win

ARLINGTON, Texas -- As easy as it was for the Mets to pile up runs this weekend, they made it look difficult.

Take Sunday's first inning, for example. The Mets generated a run on two infield singles, a stolen base, a fly ball to rightfield and a passed ball that allowed Jose Reyes to scoot home.

In the bottom half, the Rangers tied the score with one swing when Michael Young blasted a 402-foot homer over the centerfield wall.

Two contrasting styles, but it turned out to be a winning formula for the Mets, who pieced together an 8-5 victory over the Rangers to climb back to .500 (39-39) for the first time since June 15.

"It's huge," Terry Collins said. "To come in here and win two from that club, with their offense, we just had to work very, very hard, and they did that."

The day after scoring a season-high 14 runs and matching the year's best output with 17 hits, the Mets stacked another 14 hits to take their second straight from the defending American League champions.

"That's not easy to do, especially here," Reyes said.

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That's 31 hits in the two wins, but only eight went for extra bases: six doubles and two triples. The Mets have not homered since Tuesday, when Jason Bay, of all people, went deep. During that same period, Young alone has four homers, including one in each game of this series.

"Home runs are nice; it's easy offense," said Daniel Murphy, who matched his career high with three hits, including an RBI double. "But that's not the only way to score runs."

It also helps when you have Reyes, whose four-hit day included his 14th triple, his 28th stolen base, an RBI and three runs scored. Defensively, Reyes killed a bases-loaded rally in the first inning by gloving a bad-hop grounder and flipping to second for the third out. The Rangers already had scored twice off Dillon Gee, who survived a bumpy six innings to improve to 8-1.

"It was really, really big," Collins said of Reyes. "Nothing ceases to amaze me with this guy."

The Mets manufactured a 5-2 lead in the second inning, thanks to a costly throwing error by Adrian Beltre and the first of a few questionable calls by the umpiring crew.

With runners at first and third, Angel Pagan grounded to Beltre, whose wide throw got past catcher Taylor Teagarden.

Later, it appeared that Reyes was thrown out at second on a cutoff throw that was redirected from Justin Turner's fly ball to rightfield. That should have ended the inning. Instead, Reyes was called safe and Carlos Beltran followed with a two-run single up the middle.

The Reyes call got Texas manager Ron Washington riled up, and he reached his boiling point in the sixth inning, when he was thrown out along with Elvis Andrus. The annoyed Washington came out to argue with plate umpire Andy Fletcher after Murphy's RBI double, and Fletcher also was angered by someone on the Texas bench.

Fletcher informed them that someone had to go and the Rangers picked Andrus, who did not start and was not playing. Collins had a discussion with Fletcher about it and later said the umpire settled for the wrong guy.

"I knew who the one guy was that was yelling and I wanted to make sure he was the guy they threw out," Collins said. "They didn't know and I did. I wanted him out of the game."

Collins said it was Young, who had tormented his team all weekend. But after Andrus was tossed, DH Young gave a knowing nod to Collins on his way to the plate.

"I was tired of watching him hit the ball out of the ballpark," Collins said.

One of these days, the manager might get lucky enough to see one of his own guys do it.