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Reyes, Mets beat A's

Jun 24, 2011 - 4:37 AM Flushing, NY (Sports Network) - Jose Reyes had two hits, two RBI and a run scored to back six scoreless innings by Chris Capuano to give New York a 4-1 victory over Oakland in the rubber match of a three-game interleague set from Citi Field.

Capuano (6-7) allowed five hits and did not issue a walk while striking out seven, but left the game due to a right oblique injury after the sixth inning.

"I had decent separation between my changeup and fastball today, which I was able to get some strikeouts in early," Capuano said. "They adjusted to it later in the game, but early I was able to get some swings."

Francisco Rodriguez tossed a perfect ninth inning to earn his 20th save of the year to give New York its third win in the last five games.

Graham Godfrey (1-1) allowed four runs -- two earned -- on six hits and two walks in Oakland's second straight loss after a six-game win streak.

"We've had some offensive deficiencies," Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. "We have to string hits together. We have to battle, we have to work deep counts, we have to get on base, because we're not the type of team that's going to strike quick."

The Mets got all the runs they would need after loading the bases with no outs in the second on consecutive singles by Jason Bay, Lucas Duda and Josh Thole. Capuano came up next and grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to score Bay and Reyes followed with a bouncer up the middle to bring home Duda to give New York a 2-0 lead.

New York added two more runs, though, after costly errors by the A's.

Reyes reached first on Jemile Weeks' throwing error to lead off the fifth, move to second on a Justin Turner sacrifice bunt and advance to third on a groundout by Carlos Beltran before crossing the plate on a Daniel Murphy single to give the Mets a three-run advantage.

New York's second run off an error came in the sixth. Thole worked a two- out walk and Godfrey was replaced by Craig Breslow on the mound.

Willie Harris' pinch-hit single moved Thole to second, and Reyes came up next and popped a ball into foul territory on the first base side. Chris Carter, who had just entered the game in a double switch, settled under the ball, but as he was about to make the catch Weeks came running towards him. It seemed to distract Carter and the ball hit the heel of his glove and fell to the ground.

Reyes took advantage of the situation by lining the next pitch into center field to score Thole.

Oakland got on the board in the eighth after Weeks walked, stole second, advanced to third on a Cliff Pennington groundout and scored on Coco Crisp's sacrifice fly to center field.

The A's had plenty of opportunities to break through against Capuano, but he would sit them down without a run each time.

They put a man on third with two outs in the second, a man on second with two outs in the third and sixth innings, and even loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth. They finished the day hitting 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded six men on base.

Game Notes

The beginning of the game was delayed by 2:15 because of rain...Oakland placed outfielder Josh Willingham on the 15-day disabled list and recalled Carter from Sacramento on Thursday...Reyes has now recorded a major league-leading 37 multi-hit games...The A's have now committed one or more errors in 12 of their past 13 games...Crisp went 0-for-3 to put an end to his 10-game hit streak.