Thole's double helps Gee improve to 5-0

It was singles night at Citi Field Monday night. At least until Josh Thole decided to put an end to it.

The Mets' first 12 hits against the Pirates were singles. All that got them was a tied game in the seventh inning.

Thole took care of that with one swing. His tiebreaking two-run double to right-center was enough to power the Mets to a 7-3 victory before a crowd of 24,490, including prospective minority owner David Einhorn.

Einhorn took in his second game in three days and even visited the Mets' dugout with his family before the game. He spoke confidently about his yet-to-be-finalized $200-million investment in the franchise but declined to comment when asked his thoughts about the team on the field.

"I don't have anything to say about the team at this point," he said. "I just don't think it would be the right thing to do."

Thole's double off reliever Daniel McCutchen (1-1) made a winner of Dillon Gee (5-0), who allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings. He struck out a career-high eight -- including five in a row in innings two through four -- and didn't walk a Pirate. The Mets are 7-0 when the rookie starts.

"It's nice to have the strikeouts," Gee said. "It's not really something I was going for. It just happened tonight. The changeup was pretty good and I just threw fastball-changeup all night and it worked out."

Justin Turner added an RBI double to spark a two-run eighth for the Mets, who were without Jose Reyes and Jason Bay (as well as the injured David Wright and Ike Davis). But they still banged out 15 hits a day after getting 17 against the Phillies.

Reyes learned in the afternoon of the death of his grandmother, Maria Trinidad Reyes. He left the team to go to the Dominican Republic and was placed on bereavement leave. He must miss three days and could stay out a maximum of seven, but indications are he will return for Thursday's series finale. Reyes had hit .519 (14-for-27) in his last six games.

Ruben Tejada started at shortstop and went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Manager Terry Collins decided to stick with his plan to give Bay the day off, even though the Mets' lineup looked no better than the Pirates' at the start.

But the Mets continued their hot hitting of late. In their last four games, they are batting .356.

"It's been fun to watch," Collins said. "The hits, the big hits. I just think these guys have rallied around each other and said, 'Look, we've got to go do it ourselves.' . . . They're just trying to put good swings on the ball. They'll take singles if that's what they get."

Collins said the singles were a byproduct of the sinker thrown by Pirates starter Charlie Morton, who gave up 11 hits in six innings.

Thole was 0-for-3 coming into his seventh-inning, first-and-third, one-out at-bat against McCutchen, who entered the game with a 0.40 ERA.

"The biggest thing for me in that situation I was trying to get the ball up in the air," Thole said. "I knew I had to keep it off the ground with a man on first. I'd hit the ball on the ground enough tonight. I said, 'It's time to hit one to the outfield.' It just found the gap."