Mets drop nightcap, win streak ends at five

Seven scoreless innings from Johan Santana and more strong hitting lifted the Mets to a 7-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies in the opener of a day-night doubleheader yesterday at Citi Field. But the Mets' five-game winning streak came to an end in the nightcap when their suddenly-productive offense stalled. The Mets got only six hits and hurt themselves with an early baserunning blunder in a 4-2 loss to the Rockies in front of 38,962 in the second game of the first doubleheader at Citi Field. Angel Pagan got caught in a rundown between third and home with nobody out in the first inning on what appeared to be the back end of a double steal. But Pagan and Mets manager Jerry Manuel described it as a "miscommunication" rather than a designed play. "We kind of shot ourselves in the foot there, but we still had time," Manuel said. "There was a miscommunication there. It's unfortunate it happened." Still, the Mets were feeling good about themselves -- for a change -- despite the split, because they took three of four from the Rockies, who entered the series leading the National League wild-card race. The series "should give us all a lot of confidence moving forward," Mets third baseman David Wright said. The Mets impressed Rockies manager Jim Tracy. "This team is playing pretty doggone good Baseball," Tracy said. "We feel awfully good about the fact that we were able to salvage a game." Manuel is pleased with the Mets' pitching of late. Over their past six games, the Mets have a 2.17 ERA and have thrown 27 consecutive scoreless innings until the Rockies tied the score at 1 in the sixth inning of the nightcap, the longest scoreless streak by Mets pitching since 28 innings from May 22-26, 2004. "If we can keep that theme going, we have a chance to win some games," Manuel said. Game 2 starter Jon Niese "gave us a chance to win," Manuel said, but he also wobbled in the pivotal seventh inning with the score tied 1-1. He gave up a double to his counterpart, Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa (9-7) and, one out later, Clint Barmes smacked a two-run homer on a cutter that was supposed to be inside but stayed in an easy hitting zone -- right over the plate. "I made two mistakes and they hit "em," said Niese (1-1), who allowed all four runs in 61-3 innings. "You've got to give them credit -- they hit my mistakes well." The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Wright doubled, stole third on a disputed call and came home on Jeff Francoeur's sac fly. Tracy called that run "yet another run they didn't deserve," a reference to a play at the plate earlier in the series on which Tracy did not agree with the umpire's call. Fernando Tatis added a solo homer in the seventh, but it was not enough. The Mets , perhaps, had used up the day's offensive allotment in the first game, scoring five times in the second inning. They opened that inning with five consecutive hits and Wright added two later RBI to pass Edgardo Alfonzo for fifth place on the Mets' all-time list at 539. Santana, meanwhile, improved to 12-8 after allowing only four hits and a walk. He struck out eight, his first game with that many strikeouts since he fanned 11 May 27 against Washington. Santana is 8-2 at Citi Field with a 1.69 ERA. The victory, which came in front of a crowd of 40,024, gave the Mets their longest winning streak since they won seven in a row from May 4-10. "Every time you win a game, it's good, but it's even better when you have a chance to just keep adding to it," Santana said. "I was trying to do that and at the same time I was having fun. It's good to see. It's good to see that everybody feels comfortable."