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WHAT IT MEANS: The Mets have their longest losing streak of the season as dropped their fourth straight in a 5-4 loss to Arizona. The bullpen blew a two-run lead in the eighth.

IT STARTED WITH AN ERROR: An error by Ike Davis opened the door to Arizona's three-run rally in the eighth that put Arizona ahead for good. Manager Terry Collins tried mixing and matching relievers, but it didn't work. Jon Rauch had arguably his worst outing as a Met, although the box scored wouldn't show it, blowing the save while Arizona sharply hit balls all over the field. Rauch let both inherited runners score and then allowed the winning run.The Mets need their bullpen to be able to hold their leads and lately it hasn't done the job.

G IS FOR GOOD: Dillon Gee pitched six effective innings and left in line for the win, but he ended up with a no-decision as the bullpen imploded. He worked himself into a couple of jams, but was able to make the big pitch when he needed. His only blunder came when he served up a two-run homer to Cody Ransom in the second inning. Gee yielded just four hits, tied for his fewest allowed on the year. He's still 2-2 on the season.

FOUR IN THE THIRD: The Mets erupted for four runs in the third, but that was their offense on the night. After going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position the first two innings, Scott Hairston, Ike Davis and Andres Torres each drove in runs to give the team a 4-2 lead after three. The Mets put runners on base consistently throughout the night, but struggled outside that one frame to bring them home. One more big hit here or there would have allowed the Mets some separation from Arizona during the course of the contest.

SETTLED ROTATION: Before the game, Collins announced that Miguel Batista would take Mike Pelfrey's spot in the rotation. That spot has been previously filled by Chris Schwinden, but he was demoted to Triple-A Buffalo after two ineffective starts.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Mets will try and reward Johan Santana (0-2, 2.25 ERA) with his first win of the season when he takes on Patrick Corbin (1-0, 4.76) at 4:05 p.m. The Mets also will be looking to avoid a five-game losing streak.

An eventful trip to Colorado highlights our Mets week in review. As always, much of our assistance comes from the great work done at Baseball-Reference.com.

Stat of the Week
The Mets finished April with a 13-10 record despite being outscored by 20 runs for the month (111-91).

The last time the Mets finished a month with a winning record and were outscored by at least 20 runs was in June, 1997, when they went 15-12 despite being outscored 147-122.

That team, managed by Bobby Valentine, lost games in June by scores of 10-0, 10-1, 14-7, and 14-0, but was boosted by a 6-2 record in one-run games (same as the 2012 Mets had in April).

Turner’s Magic Moment
Justin Turner’s 13-pitch game-tying walk versus Heath Bell in the ninth inning of last Thursday’s win over the Marlins brought back memories of Shawon Dunston’s marathon at-bat in the 15th inning of Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS against the Braves. It also made for an easy choice for Moment of the Week.

Baseball-Reference.com has pitch-by-pitch data for most games back to 1990 and has no other instances of a game-tying walk in the ninth inning or later in a plate appearance that lasted at least 10 pitches.

It does have five instances of go-ahead walks of 10-plus pitches that late in a game (including one by Carlos Delgado for the 2007 Mets), but none lasting as long as Turner’s.

This was the longest plate appearance of Turner’s career, the first longer than 10 pitches. It matched the longest plate appearance of the season for the Mets, who got a 13-pitch appearance from Josh Thole against the Braves on April 17.

The longest recorded plate appearance by a Met is the 16-pitch battle that ended with a walk by Ruben Tejada against Antonio Bastardo and the Phillies on May 27, 2011.

Other notes from that game:
The Mets used an all homegrown lineup for the third time in team history and the first time since September 19, 1971.

This was the Mets third walk-off win of the month. It marked the fifth time that they won at least three games in April via walk-off, the first since 2008. The club record for walk-off wins in April is four, set in 1985.

This was the third time the Mets won a game via walk-off in which they drew at least four walks in the ninth inning against the losing reliever. The other such instances were in 1969 (against Joe Gibbon of the Giants) and 2002 (against Vic Darensbourg of the Marlins).

Metsiepalooza
Last weekend, a group of Mets fans gathered at Hofstra University for a three-day symposium on the 50th anniversary of the team.

One of the statistical highlights of the symposium was a presentation by Craig Glaser of Bloomberg Sports, who showed that the odds of the Mets having no no-hitters in their history were approximately the same as them having between 11 and 13 no-hitters in their history.

My favorite stat that I shared from the conference stemmed from a discussion on underrated Mets, at which point I cited John DeMerit.

DeMerit was 3-for-16 in 14 games with the 1962 Mets, but because of the manner in which he was used (pinch-hitter, defensive replacement), the team went 11-3 when he played. They went 29-117 when he didn’t.

Hairston’s bizarre cycle
Scott Hairston matched original Met Jim Hickman for the quickest cycle in Mets history in the loss to the Rockies last Friday.

Hickman and Hairston each got the four needed hits within the first six innings of the game, with Hickman doing so in 1963 against the Cardinals.

The Elias Sports Bureau chimed in with a couple of statistical lowlights from this game:

The Mets four errors in the fifth inning were their most in an inning since making four in the eighth inning against the Cardinals on April 4, 1996. They allowed 11 runs in an inning for the first time since April 7, 2004 against the Braves.

Dillon’s Birthday earns a Gee Whiz
Dillon Gee beat the Rockies last Saturday night to earn the win on his 26th birthday. Gee became the first Mets starter to pitch on his birthday since Mark Clark in 1996, and the first to win on his birthday since Dave Mlicki in 1995.

The youngest Mets starter to earn a win on his birthday was SNY’s Ron Darling, who won on his 25th birthday in 1985. He’d win again on his 26th birthday the next year. The other two Mets starters to win on their birthday are Ray Burris (1980, 30th) and Wally Whitehurst (1991, 27th)

Mets starters are now 6-1 with two no-decisions in nine career starts on their birthday. Mets relievers are 4-2, with the most recent win coming from John Franco in 2001.

Extra, Extra
The Mets 11-inning win in the series finale at Coors Field last Sunday brought back memories of the ballpark’s opener in 1995, when the Mets blew repeated leads and lost to the Rockies in 14 innings on Dante Bichette’s walk-off home run.

Sunday’s win marked the first extra-inning victory for the Mets at Coors Field in the ballpark’s 18-year history. They’d lost in extra innings on each of the two previous bonus-baseball occasions.

The quirk of the week: The Mets are 3-0 this season when Johan Santana gets a no-decision. They were 3-10 in the previous 13 games in which he got a no-decision.

Since joining the Mets in 2008, Santana has six starts in which he allowed no runs and got a no-decision. No other Met has more than two such starts in that span.

Astro-doom
The losses in the last three games to the Astros were statistically-forgettable games.

The weirdest thing that happened was on Monday when the Astros had four different pitchers each record a single out.

It’s the fourth time in Mets history that the Mets dealt with a quartet of one-out pitchers, the first since 2004, and the second time against the Astros (it previously happened in 1974).

Wednesday's finale got off to a rough start when Ruben Tejada doubled to lead off the game, then was thrown out at third base trying to extend it to a triple. It was the second time in Mets history that that happened. The other would-be tripler nailed was Jose Reyes in 2008.

Chris Johnson closed the Mets out with a four-hit, six-RBI game on Wednesday, the 11th such game against the Mets in their history. He joins a list of players to do that that includes Hank Aaron, Tom Pagnozzi and Cody Ross.

Vintage Metric of the Week
Todd Helton’s game-tying grand slam in that Sunday win serves as the springboard for this week’s flashback.

It was the unlucky 13th pinch-hit grand slam allowed by a Mets pitcher, the first since Aaron Heilman yielded one to Mark Loretta in the eighth-inning of a tie game in 2008.

But what leads to our time-machine trip is this note:

The Mets had only given up one game-tying pinch-hit grand slam in their history prior to Sunday—on July 2, 1969 when Ron Taylor allowed one in the eighth inning to Vic Davalillo of the Cardinals, also in a game that the Mets were winning at the time, 4-0.

This was one of the more remarkable games of that miraculous season in that the Mets managed to win despite the Cardinals having multiple chances to close them out.

The Mets threw out the potential winning run at home in the ninth inning, and escaped subsequent bases-loaded jams in the 10th and 13th innings before prevailing in 14 frames, 6-4.

We’ll see if the 2012 Mets have that kind of perseverance.

Buster Posey's error with two outs in the ninth allowed Scott Hairston to score and the Mets beat the Giants in a walk-off, 5-4. The Mets, who blew a 4-1 lead in the ninth, snapped their three-game losing streak and improved to 8-6.

THE WINNING INNING: Lucas Duda singled and Ruben Tejada walked. Justin Turner hit what appeared to be a double-play ball but normal first baseman Aubrey Huff, playing second, didn't cover and Turner beat out the throw to first, loading the bases. Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a chopper to first and the Giants got the out at home, but Posey threw wide going for the out at first and Tejada scored as the ball went into the outfield.

HORRIFIC NINTH: The Mets were three outs away from ending this one in the top of the ninth but closer Frank Francisco struggled and Nieuwenhuis misplayed a ball in center field as the Giants tied the game.

Francisco surrendered two hits and a walk, pulling the Giants within 4-2, and was then removed from the game. It's the first time manager Terry Collins has pulled Francisco, who has struggled recently, in a save situation.

Tim Byrdak replaced Francisco with men on first and second and one out and struck out Hector Sanchez. Jon Rauch then came in and Brandon Belt hit a soft fly to center, but Nieuwenhuis appeared to overrun the ball and it fell in for a two-run double that tied the game.

PELF ON TRACK: Pelfrey has quietly put together a nice start to his season. While the Giants don't have a great lineup, he held them in check, not surrendering many hard-hit balls during the course of the game. His sinker had plenty of life to it and the bottom kept dropping out on hitters. He ran into trouble in the third, but the Giants only tallied one run that frame.

Pelfrey gave up just one run over eight innings, leaving with his team up three runs. He yielded six hits and struck out three, and is 0-0 with a 2.29 ERA spanning three starts.

TEJADA'S BIG DAY: Tejada drove in three runs as he nearly doubled his RBI total on the year. In the fifth, his fielder's choice scored a runner from third to tie the game at 1-1. In the seventh, with runners on second and third and one out, he hit a chopper down the third-base line that just got by a diving Pablo Sandoval to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. He walked in the ninth and finished 2-for-3.

BAD IN THE CLUTCH: The Mets struggled with runners in scoring position, hitting 2-for-12 on the day. The Mets had some other good chances during the course of the game to tack on some runs but did not do well in situational hitting. Ahead 4-1 in the eighth with two men and no outs, Ike Davis was picked off at first and David Wright was caught stealing.

DUDA PLAYS BIG ROLE: Duda is struggling at the plate but he scored two of the Mets' five runs. He tied the game after leading off the fifth with a walk, and his walk in the seventh helped get the inning rolling. The Mets were able to sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third, setting the table for Tejada's big double. He led off the ninth with a single before being pulled, reaching base in three of his four at-bats.

IKE GETS A CHEAP ONE: Davis, with just seven hits in 50 at-bats entering the game, picked up an RBI single in the eighth on a slow grounder that pitcher Javier Lopez couldn't field with his hand and then rolled by shortstop Brandon Crawford. He then was picked off first base. He finished 1-for-4 on the day.

UP NEXT: Dillon Gee (1-1, 2.92 ERA) will oppose two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum (0-2, 10.54) in the third game of a four-game set at 1:10 p.m.

Ronny Paulino had a game-tying RBI in the sixth inning Thursday to help lift the MLB All-Stars to a 5-3 win over their Taiwanese opponents at Taichung Intercontinental Stadium in Game 2 of the tour of that country.

Dillon Gee also is representing the Mets on the trip, but has not yet appeared on the mound.

Lets’ look at the 2011 season from a non-traditional statistical perspective, with some help from the resources of Baseball-Reference.com …

Team Year-in-Review
• The Mets went 77-85 in 2011. It’s the second time in team history that they won exactly 77 games, the first coming 20 years ago in a very disappointing 1991 season.

• These Mets scored 718 runs, 12th-most in team history, but second-most in a losing season. They scored 746 runs when they went 71-91 in 1996.

• The Mets had an-NL leading 309 doubles, second-most in team history, trailing only the 323 of the 2011 squad. It marked the second time the team led the league in doubles, the other coming in 1989.

• The Mets led the National League in walks drawn for the first time since 1992. It’s a category they also led in both 1962 (the lowest of lows) and 1986 (the highest of highs).

• The Mets finished second in the National League in on-base percentage (.335), their highest NL ranking since 1999, when they led the league. The only other seasons they were a top-two team were three pretty good years-- 1986 to 1988.

• This season marked the first 162-game season in which the Mets did not have a player play 130 games with the team. The Mets also were without 130-game players in 1972, 1981, and 1994. The 1972 season could also count- it was a 156-game season due to a player strike. No Met finished with more than 122 games.

Jose, Jose, Jose
• Jose Reyes is the second player in Mets history to lead the National League in most at-bats per strikeout (13.1). The only other player to do it was second baseman Felix Millan, who led the NL each season from 1973 to 1975.

Reyes also shared the NL lead in triples with Shane Victorino, despite not hitting any triples in his final 43 games. He stockpiled them early, setting a Mets record for multi-triple games in a season with three.

• Reyes was part of the second instance in Mets history in which they had the same pair of players steal at least 30 bases in back-to-back seasons. Angel Pagan and Reyes did so this season. Lee Mazzilli and Frank Taveras did it in 1979 and 1980.

Obscure Stat of the Season I
The most obscure stat on the offensive side was that Chin-Lung Hu went 1-for-20, finishing with an .050 batting average. Only two Mets position players had a worse batting average, with at least 20 at-bats in a season-- Sandy Alomar Sr. was 0-22 (.000) in 1966 and catcher Butch Benton was 1-for-21 (.048) in 1980.

The Best There Was
Chris Capuano’s 13-strikeout, two-hit shutout of the Braves on August 26 earned him a Bill James Game Score of 96, the highest in the major leagues all season.

Bill James Game Score ranks pitcher starts, usually on a scale from 0 to 100, with 49 to 50 being average. The rating is based on a pitchers innings pitched, hits allowed, runs allowed, strikeouts, and walks.

It marked the fourth time in Mets history that a Mets pitcher finished a season with the highest Bill James Game Score, the first since 1985 when Dwight Gooden’s Game Score of 92 against the Phillies on September 16 (a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts) tied him with Jimmy Key and Dennis Eckersley for best of the season.

Tom Seaver claimed top Game Score pitching honors in a season twice, in 1970 and 1974.

Dickey Deserved Better
R.A. Dickey’s season marked the 42nd time in Mets history that a pitcher finished with an ERA of 3.30 or better in 200 or more innings. However, Dickey’s 8-13 record and .381 winning percentage surpassed Jon Matlack’s .464 winning percentage in 1974 as the worst of those 42 seasons.

Golly Gee!
• Dillon Gee hit 14 batters with a pitch this season, two shy of the Mets record set by Pedro Astacio in 2002. Gee’s 14 hit-by-pitches rank fourth-best in Mets history, one shy of the three-way tie featuring Nolan Ryan (1971), Kevin Appier (2001), and Victor Zambrano (2005) for second-most.

• Gee won 13 games this season with a 4.43 ERA. That’s tied for the second-most wins by a Mets pitcher whose ERA was greater than 4.4 (tied with Orel Hershiser in 1999 and Tom Glavine, 2007). The only pitcher with more, Steve Trachsel, who had 15 wins and a 4.97 ERA in 2006.

Obscure Stat of the Season II
The Mets used 23 pitchers this season and every one of them recorded at least one decision. It’s the fifth time in Mets history in which every pitcher used in a season got at least one decision. The other occurrences were in 1970, 1979, 1983, and 1995.

Recap | Box score | Photos

WHAT IT MEANS: The Nats (69-77) pulled even with the Mets (71-77) in the loss column in the battle for third place in the National League East.

Bobby Parnell entered and allowed a tie-breaking RBI single to Ryan Zimmerman in the seventh after inheriting two baserunners, who reached against Dale Thayer.

The Mets placed two runners on base in the ninth with two outs, but Drew Storen retired Lucas Duda to end the game.

WELL-ARMED: With the game scoreless in the fifth, Josh Thole was thrown out by Nats center fielder Rick Ankiel trying to score from second base on Jose Reyes’ single.

Reyes did not advance to second on the throw to the plate, so he was not in scoring position when Ruben Tejada followed with a two-out single. However, Duda then singled to right field, which Jayson Werth misplayed with the ball kicking away. Two runs scored, including Tejada all the way from first on the single and error, as the Mets took a 2-0 lead.

Terry Collins recently expressed disappointment with the Mets missing opportunities to take extra bases and said it will be a point of emphasis during spring training.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: Duda, who is headed to winter ball in Venezuela for a month after the regular season to continue to hone his right-field play, misread and got a late jump on Ian Desmond’s shallow fly ball in the sixth. It dropped in for a single. Ankiel and Michael Morse subsequently contributed RBI doubles against Dillon Gee as the Nats evened the score at 2.

Gee followed by consecutively walking Werth and Danny Espinosa to load the bases with two outs.

Collins summoned Pedro Beato, who retired Chris Marrero on a flyout to right field to strand the three runners and preserve the tie.

Gee’s line: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. He threw 95 pitches (60 strikes).

REYES TRACKER: Jose Reyes went 3-for-4 with a walk to lift his average to .333.

WHAT’S NEXT: Mike Pelfrey (7-11, 4.66 ERA) opposes Nats rookie right-hander Brad Peacock (0-1, 6.57), who will make his first major league start, on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.

The Mets beat the Padres, 7-3, on Wednesday to secure their first series win at San Diego since the opening of Petco Park.

Dillon Gee became the first Mets starting pitcher to allow fewer than two runs in a game since Mike Pelfrey at Dodger Stadium on July 5 -- a 36-game rut that was the longest streak in the majors since the 2002 Baltimore Orioles.

The Amazin's had last won a road series against the Padres in 2002 at Qualcomm (nee Jack Murphy) Stadium, when Al Leiter, Steve Trachsel and Shawn Estes posted wins in the four-game series.

Thursday's news reports:

• Pedro Beato has heard about Terry Collins' idea that the rookie may be suited for a starting role, but Beato indicated he thinks he will be more successful as a reliever. "I’m more comfortable where I am right now,” Beato told Andy McCullough in the Star-Ledger. “Starting wasn’t a highlight of my career. At all. I actually improved a lot more during the times that I’ve been in the bullpen these last two years. That’s where I see myself at, and that’s where I want to be at.”

The stats seem to bear out Beato's concern: In 20 starts with Class A Fredericksburg in 2009 -- his final season in the rotation before the Baltimore Orioles shifted him to bullpen work -- Beato's opponent batting average was .247 in the first inning, .269 in the second, .286 in the third, .284 in the fourth, .358 in the fifth and .400 in the sixth. In 2008, when Beato made 19 starts for that same club, he more uniformly struggled, posting a 5.85 ERA.

• Given Jason Isringhausen's success, it stands to reason that he will pitch again in the majors in 2012, whether with the Mets or elsewhere. Still, Izzy -- who turns 39 on Sept. 7 -- told the Post's Mike Puma he will wait until season's end to firmly resolve to pitch again now that he has achieved 300 saves. "If I feel healthy, I'll have my agent talk to some people and see what kind of interest is out there," Isringhausen told Puma. "I'm not coming back for 500 grand again -- I know that. But in the same sense I knew coming in, this year wasn't really about the money. It was about proving to people I was healthy. We'll just see how it goes. My wife and I will have a lot of conversations and we'll see what happens."

Jose Reyes intends to test his strained left hamstring running Friday, as the Mets open a series at Citi Field against the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Terry Collins now says it's "conceivable" Reyes may be activated from the disabled list Tuesday at Philadelphia, the day the shortstop is eligible. The manager will have strategic rest days for Reyes when he returns. Promise. Read more in Newsday, the Record and Star-Ledger.

• Gee took a scoreless effort into the seventh inning, when he was drilled with a pitch in the top half of the inning. He then surrendered his lone run in the bottom half. Manny Acosta prevented a big inning with a bases-loaded strikeout of Jason Bartlett. Afterward, Gee said his knee was OK and it would not affect his next start. "It hurt for about 45 seconds and then it kind of went away," Gee said. Read game stories from the Mets' rubber-game win in the Star-Ledger, Record, Post, Daily News and Newsday.

• Newsday's Ken Davidoff attempted to speak with Fred Wilpon at the owners meetings in Cooperstown regarding Tuesday's federal appeals court decision that appears to put Mets owners on hook for $300 million in "fictitious profits" in the lawsuit brought by the trustee trying to recover funds for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Still, at a court hearing Friday afternoon, Wilpon and family could be freed from having to cough up an additional $700 million in principal, which trustee Irving Picard is trying to recover by alleging the Wilpons should have known something was not proper with Madoff's investment practices. Writes Davidoff:

Wilpon politely declined comment on anything and everything connected to this. "No questions, no answers," he told me and Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal. "I’m sorry, guys. I know it’s your job."

• Johan Santana may wait as long as a week more before throwing off a mound. That would mean roughly three full weeks from his lone minor league rehab appearance until he steps atop the slope again, and suggests an uphill battle for Santana to get into perhaps more than one major league game before the season ends Sept. 28. And he may never appear in the majors this season. Santana may need four or five minor league starts once he gets into a game -- and he's not stepping right back into games.

• Pitching coach Dan Warthen tells the Post that Bobby Parnell, at least in terms of arsenal of pitches, is more equipped to be a closer than Francisco Rodriguez, the single-season saves record holder. "He certainly has much better stuff than K-Rod," Warthen told the newspaper. "But K-Rod knew what to pitch. He recognized bad swings. Bobby was a third baseman (in high school). He watches video. I don't know that he sees what he's looking at all the time."

• Interpreter Mike Peters, who may be looking for a job given Ryota Igarashi's Mets tenure appears to be nearing its end, is profiled in The Wall Street Journal. Writes Brian Costa:

From a baseball standpoint, Peters's most important role is as a bridge between Igarashi and coaches. When pitching coach Dan Warthen goes over hitters' tendencies in group meetings before the first game of every series, Peters takes detailed notes. When the game begins, he sits with Igarashi in the bullpen, translating his notes as each hitter comes to the plate. Away from the ballpark, Igarashi said the two try to give each other space. His English is decent enough that he can go food shopping or order at a restaurant on his own.

BIRTHDAY: Left-hander Pat Misch turns 30. Misch is 7-7 with a 4.34 ERA in 18 starts this season for Triple-A Buffalo.

Recap | Box score | Photos

WHAT IT MEANS: David Wright produced his third straight two-RBI game since returning from the disabled list. His two-run homer in the seventh inning off Anibal Sanchez gave the Mets a one-run lead. However, Logan Morrison tied the score with a solo homer and John Buck delivered a go-ahead pinch-hit RBI single later in the eighth, both off Bobby Parnell, as Florida rallied for the rubber-game victory, 5-4.

Wright matched a career high, done four previous times, by driving in two or more runs in a third straight game.

The Mets dipped below .500 at 50-51.

FEELING THE HEAT: Angel Pagan departed in the fifth inning and was replaced by Jason Pridie in center field. Pagan was suffering from dehydration, the team announced.

OH, GEE: Dillon Gee fell short in his first attempt at becoming the 10^th rookie in franchise history to reach 10 wins. The next crack for Gee, who had a no-decision, comes Friday at Washington.

Only six Mets rookie have reached 10 wins as a starter: Tom Seaver (16-12 in starts in 1967), Jerry Koosman (19-12, 1968), Gary Gentry (13-12, 1969), Jon Matlack (14-10, 1972), Dwight Gooden (17-9, 1984) and Ron Darling (12-9, 1984), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Hisanori Takahashi was the last Met to reach 10 wins as a rookie, last season, when he split duty between starting and relief.

Gee was charged with three runs on seven hits while walking three, striking out three and hitting a batter in five innings. He threw 96 pitches.

BAY WATCH: After going hitless in his first two at-bats to drop his rut to 4-for-his-last-43, Jason Bay delivered a run-scoring single in the sixth to pull the Mets within 3-2. It was Bay's second RBI in his past 13 games. Pridie had sacrifice bunted Wright and Daniel Murphy ahead a base to set up Bay's at-bat with two runners in scoring position.

MURPHY'S FLAW: Murphy missed two foul pop-ups at first base. He was charged with an error on the latter drop, on Omar Infante's pop in the seventh, although Manny Acosta recovered to strike out Infante.

WHAT'S NEXT: Cincinnati's economy gets a boost as the Mets -- and a bevy of scouts -- head to the city. R.A. Dickey (4-8, 3.80 ERA) opposes Mike Leake (8-5, 4.11) in Monday's series opener, followed by matchups of Jon Niese and Johnny Cueto on Tuesday, Mike Pelfrey and Bronson Arroyo on Wednesday, and Chris Capuano and Homer Bailey on Thursday.

The Mets have a chance to jump a game over .500 on Wednesday when they take on the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a three-game series. R.A. Dickey will face Kyle McClellan on Wednesday night. But, just like Tuesday, the most important names for the Mets will likely be Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran. Both returned to the lineup on Tuesday, lifting the Mets to a 4-2 win over St. Louis.

Here are Wednesday's news reports:

• Reyes played for the first time since July 2 when he exited a game against the Yankees early due to a strained left hamstring. He had two hits on Tuesday, to boost his league-leading multihit game total to 44. He also made two exceptional plays in the field in the eight, the second being a 6-6-3 double play that ended the inning with the bases loaded.

Read more on Reyes in the Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Daily News.

• Beltran came back following a three-day absence due to a viral illness that caused "104 to 105"” degree fevers, according to the All-Star right-fielder. Beltran didn't miss a beat in his return, finishing 3 for 3 with two doubles and two walks to raise his personal average against Cards starter Kyle Lohse to an astounding .564 in 39 at-bats. He's now reached base safely in 25 games, his longest streak since a 30-game stretch spanning the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Read more on Beltran in Newsday, the Post and the Daily News.

• On July 6, 1999, Jason Isringhausen notched his first career save with the Mets. On Tuesday night, he got his second. Isringhausen, one member of the Mets' post K-Rod closer-by-committee, pitched a perfect ninth to record his first big-league save since Aug. 1, 2008. The 12-year gap between Mets saves is the largest in franchise history.

Read more on Isringhausen in the Post, Star-Ledger and Newsday.

• David Wright went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs scored, an RBI and a strikeout in his fifth minor-league rehab game with St. Lucie. He played nine innings at third base for the second straight night. Overall, Wright is hitting .421 (8-for-19) with eight runs scored. He’s been on the disabled list since May 18 with a lower back stress fracture.

• First baseman Ike Davis expressed skepticism he would be able to return to the New York Mets this season. Speaking to children at Coleman Country Day Camp in Merrick, N.Y., on Long Island, on Tuesday, Davis candidly described his left ankle as "not good." "But next year I will be back and healthy," Davis told the campers. "I promise."

Davis injured the ankle in a collision with third Wright by the pitcher's mound at Coors Field in Denver on May 10 and has not returned to the lineup because of lingering discomfort when he attempts to run.

Read more on Davis in the Times, the Post and Newsday.

• Dillon Gee no-hit the Cards for 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday. He finished the night allowing three hits in seven innings to earn his ninth win, the highest total among major-league rookies.

• Josh Thole is expected to return to the Mets on Wednesday after missing Tuesday's game due to paternity leave. Thole and his wife, Kathryn, welcomed their first child (see bottom), a son named Camden, at 8:41 p.m. Tuesday.

BIRTHDAYS: No one who appeared for the Mets was born today but Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg turns 23.

The sixth inning proved Dillon Gee’s undoing for a second straight start.

Against the Yankees last weekend, Gee was locked in a scoreless duel with Bartolo Colon until a four-run sixth. This time, Gee nearly matched zeroes with Clayton Kershaw -- the lone early run came on a blown call at the plate -- until a five-run sixth. The six runs (five earned) charged to Gee were a career high.

“It’s certainly puzzling,” Terry Collins said about the consecutive sixth-inning fizzles. “His changeup, he got up in the zone and right out over the middle of the plate. That’s the second time in a row in that inning he’s just lost command of his stuff and his concentration has been broken.”

Gee lamented hanging a changeup to Matt Kemp, which the Dodgers cleanup hitter tattooed for a two-run double.

“Just a bad pitch. It kind of got away from me,” Gee said. “He made me pay for it.”

WHAT IT MEANS: The Mets committed three errors and fell short of a four-game sweep in Los Angeles on Mary Hart Night at Dodger Stadium. All-Star Clayton Kershaw limited the Amazin’s to five hits in eight scoreless innings, included a bases-loaded strikeout of Ronny Paulino on a 2-2 changeup to complete his outing.

CALL HOME: After Dillon Gee hit Juan Uribe with a pitch, then fielded James Loney’s comebacker and threw it wide of second base for an error that allowed Uribe to reach third, Aaron Miles was credited with a sacrifice fly for the game’s opening run.

Terry Collins complained that Paulino’s tag on Jason Bay’s throw from left field was in time, and replays confirmed his assertion. But plate umpire Greg Gibson had ruled Uribe safe.

Gibson and Collins had a confrontation on Wednesday night, too. Gibson ruled Matt Kemp safe at first base on a would-be double play in Game 3 of the series. The ump did tell Collins he made that call too quickly, and Collins had expressed satisfaction after that game with the umpire’s professionalism and candor.

The sting of Thursday’s call dissipated when the run became largely inconsequential thanks to a five-run sixth that made it 6-0. MVP candidate Matt Kemp delivered a two-run double in the inning. Gee, pulled with two out, fell to 8-3 on the season. He surrendered a career-high six runs (five earned) in 5 2/3 innings. The final run charged to Gee came when Manny Acosta surrendered a triple to Dioner Navarro that allowed an inherited runner to score.

FIRST THING: Nick Evans, who replaced Jose Reyes on the roster, went 0-for-3 in his return to the major league club. Evans had put together a 19-game hitting streak recently at Triple-A Buffalo and was hitting .330 in the International League this season. He is now hitless in 15 at-bats at the major league level this season.

The last time Evans was demoted from the Mets, on June 9, he had the ability to declare free agency after clearing waivers, but he elected to report to Triple-A Buffalo.

“It just made the most sense to me to sign back here midseason like this, where you don’t know anybody elsewhere,” Evans said. “This organization, I know everybody. I like this organization, so this is where I want to be.”

TURN FOR WORSE: Justin Turner’s franchise-rookie-record streak of reaching base in 28 straight games ended with an 0-for-4 night.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Mets’ tour of All-Star starting pitchers takes them to San Francisco, where R.A. Dickey opposes Ryan Vogelsong in the opener. Fellow All-Stars Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain also loom in the series. Collins expects no issue with the strained muscle in Dickey’s backside, but indicated he would have a standby -- presumably D.J. Carrasco -- ready in case the knuckleballer had an issue while warming up. Jason Isringhausen, not Carrasco, was used in the eighth inning Thursday with the Mets trailing by six runs.

You always here of pitchers helping their cause. Well, Mets starter Dillon Gee did the opposite as he bounced into an inning-ending 5-5-3 double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth.

After Yankees starter Bartolo Colon retired 13 in a row, the Mets strung together three straight hits to load the bases for Gee. In a 2-2 count, he hit a chopper to Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who stepped on third and then threw across the diamond for the out at first. The teams were scoreless after five.

Gee entered the game batting .048 and is 0-for-2 on the day.

Dillon Gee discusses winning in Arlington, where he pitched in college.

Lucas Duda had four hits, including three doubles, and drove in four runs and the Mets posted a season-high scoring output in a 14-5 win at Texas on Saturday. Jon Niese limited the Rangers to a pair of solo homers, but left the game as a precaution in the sixth inning with a rapid heartbeat.

Sunday's news reports:

• Niese said his heart rate quickly normalized, and that a Rangers team doctor was satisfied there was no immediate danger. While heat seemed like an obvious culprit, Niese said he had infrequently experienced the sensation in previous instances, even in cooler weather. Niese will undergo further evaluations at the next stop, in Detroit, on Tuesday. Read more in the Star-Ledger and Newsday.

• Jeff Wilpon chided players in the clubhouse after Thursday's game for not retaliating against the Athletics, who plunked Justin Turner in the leg in the first inning, sources told ESPNNewYork.com.

• The Daily News' Kristie Ackert chronicles how the Mets have announced one injury for a player in recent years, only to have the diagnoses evolve over time into something far more serious or different. The report was spurred by Ike Davis initially being diagnosed by doctors with a calf strain and bone bruise and placed in a boot, with cartilage damage discovered later. (The boot restricted circulation and potentially slowed the healing, Sandy Alderson acknowledged.)

My personal observation is that Davis' situation is different from the normal injury debacle with the Mets. Generally, the issue has been disregarding the advice of the doctors in order to keep players on the field. For instance, during reliever J.J. Putz's time with the Mets in 2009, he was advised by doctors to have bone chips/spurs removed from his elbow early in the season, which would have meant a several-weeks absence, but then an in-season return. Instead, ownership/front-office officials advocated shooting Putz up with cortisone, which Putz did at least twice. That masked the pain, and ultimately prompted Putz to partially tear the ulnar collateral ligament too. His season ended that June 4, after three ineffective appearances.

Another telling conversation took place in the clubhouse one year between Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. Church told Schneider that the catcher's knee looked swollen and he ought to get it checked out. Schneider responded, "They don't want to hear about that" -- meaning the mentality was stay on the field. Not knocking smaller injuries out with short-term rest led to bigger injuries, as we saw with Jose Reyes batting right-handed against righty pitchers because of a right oblique strain rather than letting it heal. That caused it to linger all summer. And let's not even get into Church being allowed to fly from Atlanta to Colorado with a concussion ...

• The Post's Kevin Kernan visited yet-to-be-signed first-round pick Brandon Nimmo at the prep phenom's home in Cheyenne, Wyo. Kernan opens the story painting a picture of the barn Nimmo's father constructed in 2005 to house a batting facility for the outfielder. Writes Kernan:

The barn is a solid 64-by-42 structure with blown-in insulation that offers shelter from the cold and the 70-80 mph winds that come ripping down from the northwest in this city of 55,000 that sits 6,100 feet above sea level. The barn is bigger than the modest gray ranch house that sits in front of it on the six-acre plot of land. This is not just any barn, though. It doesn’t house horses, tractors or farm equipment. What’s stored in this structure is something different. Here lives a dream.

• Ron Darling praised New York State's passage of gay marriage legislation. "I immediately called my wife as soon as I heard," Darling told the Daily News. "I'm joyous. Excited. I can't wait to hear if my friends are going to take the plunge, and I'm anticipating going to many marriages."

• Oklahoma prep right-hander Michael Fulmer, the 44th overall pick in the draft, drove three hours with his family to watch the Mets play the Rangers this weekend.

• Anthony McCarron of the Daily News notes it may seem unseemly that Scott Boras reached out to already-represented Jose Reyes about becoming the shortstop's agent, but there's nothing against the rules. That is, as long as the contact is disclosed to the union in a timely fashion.

• Jason Bay (stiff neck) and Justin Turner (thumb) both missed Saturday's game, but hoped to return for Sunday's rubber game with Texas starting a southpaw. Read more in Newsday.

• Read game stories in the Times, Star-Ledger, Newsday, Daily News, Post and Record.

• David Wright has started to ramp up physical activities. Terry Collins called it "feasible" for Wright to return on July 15, immediately after the All-Star break. The manager plans to spend his four-day break watching Wright. Wright will not begin swinging a bat until the middle of this week. Read more in Newsday.

• Dillon Gee tries to bounce back from his first 2011 loss in front of a large group of family and friends. Gee was a 21st-round pick out of Texas-Arlington, and was raised in nearby Cleburne, Texas. His father Kevin is a Fort Worth firefighter. Read more in the Post.

• David Waldstein of the Times has fun talking to the dentists behind Dickey & Wakefield Dental in Allen, Texas. -- Dr. Steve Dickey and Dr. Brian Wakefield. "What are the odds of that?" Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey tells Waldstein. "I tell you what. I would definitely feel comfortable going there. You’ve got to have a steady hand to throw a knuckleball, and also to do the work they do.”

• The Times' Tyler Kepner talks with ex-Mets outfielder Shawn Green about his book, "The Way of Baseball."

BIRTHDAY: Luis Hernandez, a fringe candidate for the Mets' starting second base spot this season and the runner-up to Chin-lung Hu as backup middle infielder on the Opening Day roster, turns 27. Hernandez has struggled in Buffalo offensively this season (.226, 2 HR, 26 RBI), and his legacy may end up being the home run he hit one pitch after breaking a foot against the Braves' Tim Hudson last Sept. 18. -Mark Simon

Dillon Gee, who played collegiately at Texas-Arlington and grew up a Nolan Ryan fan in nearby Cleburne, Texas, met his idol before Friday's series Mets-Rangers opener. Mets PR man Jay Horwitz had Ryan, the Rangers team president, swing by outside the Mets clubhouse for a short chat with Gee, who faces Texas on Sunday.

Gee received an autographed ball that read: "To Dillon, Good luck with your career, Nolan Ryan."

"Jay just said, 'Meet me back in here in like 20 minutes. I've got a surprise for you,'" Gee said. "I was like, 'OK.' He was like, 'Do you know what it is?' And I was like, 'I can take a pretty good guess.' I was very excited. We didn't talk for long, just chitchatted a little bit. He's got a lot of things to do, so I didn't want to take up too much of his time."

Gee expects to have a 40-person contingent cheering for him Sunday in a suite secured by his brother-in-law.

As for his favorite memory coming to the stadium as a youngster, Gee said it was arriving early enough for batting practice one game and getting Cal Ripken's autograph.