Mets score early and often to win

These days, the Mets will take any win they can get.

Even if it comes against a Phillies lineup that doesn’t include Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino.

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Mets avoided a sweep yesterday by scoring four runs in each of the first two innings en route to a 9-5 win in front of 30,791 at Citi Field.

Led by Jose Reyes’ four hits — including two triples — the Mets collected a season-high 17 hits and set a franchise record with 13 two-out hits. Jonathon Niese (4-5) allowed one run (unearned), five hits and four walks in 61 / 3 innings, striking out six. The lefthander threw a season-high 122 pitches, 78 for strikes.

Reyes got the offense going in the first against the NL East-leading Phillies (33-20), ripping a leadoff triple to left before scoring on a groundout by Justin Turner. After Carlos Beltran flied out for the second out, Jason Bay (2-for-5) and Daniel Murphy (career-high three hits) hit back-to-back singles.
 

Shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ error on Angel Pagan’s grounder allowed Bay to score. Josh Thole (career-high three RBIs) and Ruben Tejada followed with RBI singles to make it 4-0 before Niese grounded out to end the inning.

But the Mets (24-28) weren’t done. After Phillies starter Vance Worley retired the first two batters, he allowed five straight hits — a double by Beltran, a single by Bay, RBI singles by Murphy and Pagan and a two-run double by Thole, who was caught in a rundown when he tried to stretch it into a triple.

Worley (2-1) was pulled after allowing 12 hits and eight runs (five earned) in three innings. The Mets had 10 hits in the first two innings, nine with two outs.

“That’s a good team over there, and four runs isn’t exactly a shutdown,” Bay said. “But to come back and get four more, I think . . . it kind of lets everybody relax a little bit.”

Asked if he had ever seen a two-out offensive surge like that, manager Terry Collins couldn’t help but laugh: “Not this year, I haven’t.

“It certainly was a bust-out game for us offensively,’’ he said. “We needed it in the worst way.”

The Mets entered the game on a three-game losing streak, with six losses in their previous seven games, and were hitting .229 (102-for-446) with runners in scoring position.

“We need wins,” Beltran said. “It doesn’t matter how we get them.”

The Mets are 3-6 against the Phillies this season.

With Thole on first and two outs in the fifth, Reyes tripled to make it 9-1. It was his third 2011 game with two triples; he also did it April 11 vs. the Rockies and May 6 vs. the Dodgers. The last player to have at least three multiple-triple games was Carl Crawford — yep, that Carl Crawford — who had four in 2004.

Said Reyes, who has six straight multihit games, equaling his longest streak from Aug. 12-18, 2003: “If I hit it in the gap, everybody knows I’m going to be at third base.”

Raul Ibañez homered off Taylor Buchholz during a three-run eighth for the Phillies.