Mets sweep D-backs: Snake, rattle & roll!

The way the Mets went skipping out of Citi Field Sunday, it's almost hard to believe that at one point during this weeklong homestand, they were being compared to the awful 1962 team in terms of futility.

But Casey's Amazin's never had the fortune of playing the Diamondbacks. These Mets did, and they took advantage of it. Their 8-4 win in front of 22,232 capped their first sweep of the season and sent them on their upcoming road trip with a four-game winning streak.

The secret to the sudden turnaround? Blank minds, according to Carlos Beltran.

"Right now, I don't think anyone is thinking about anything," the rightfielder said. "We're just going out there and playing the game and good things are happening to us. We just need to continue to play the same way."

Yes, the Mets (9-13) are hot. So much so that they no longer have the fewest wins in the majors.> They're even thinking about the ones that got away.

"We got to 4-2 in kind of a weird way, but we got there," David Wright said of beginning the homestand with two losses to the Astros. "That's good for any two-series stretch, but you get kind of greedy and you wish we could have gotten five. But we got four, and hopefully it provides us with some momentum."

Wright certainly has some. He hit two homers Sunday, his first multihomer game of the season and 16th of his career. The first was a line drive over the wall in left-center that staked the Mets to a 2-0 lead in the first. The second was a pop-up down the leftfield line that just cleared the wall for a solo shot in the fourth.

Wright said he thought the ball would hook foul. Terry Collins, who has seen the cavernous ballpark rob Wright of at least a couple of homers this season, was glad to see Citi Field give one back.

"I didn't know that could happen here," the manager said. "That ball just kept going and going and going."

Jason Pridie, added to the roster for his defense in centerfield, chipped in with a three-run homer into the Mets' bullpen in right-center, part of a four-run third that chased Arizona starter Armando Galarraga (3-1) at the conclusion of the inning. Mets starter Jon Niese (1-3) earned his first win of the season with seven strong innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs.

"The biggest thing is our starting pitching," Wright said. "We'll go as far as our starting pitching carries us."

During this homestand, that was perhaps the most noticeable difference. Every Mets starter during the six-game stretch went at least six innings. The last four of them translated into wins. There also were more two-out hits and tack-on runs, Collins said. Both of those were illustrated by Wright's second homer. Ike Davis had an RBI single later in the inning.

The Mets face the Nationals and the Phillies during the upcoming week. They went 2-4 against those NL East rivals earlier this month. But that was before they started winning a few games, even if they were against the lowly Astros and Diamondbacks.

"The confidence in the room is up going into this week," Collins said. "I think that'll help going into this road trip. I'm excited to get out Tuesday night and see how we play."