METS 7

BREWERS 5

MILWAUKEE – One night it’s Aaron Heilman. Another night it’s Mike Piazza. And last night it was Doug Mientkiewicz, Carlos Beltran and Roberto Hernandez.

Everyone is contributing right now for these Mets. And that’s one of the main reasons why they keep winning.

In last night’s 7-5 win over the Brewers, Mientkiewicz hit the tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning, Beltran enjoyed his first multi-homer game as a Met and Hernandez recorded his first save since 2002.

“That’s what good teams do,” Mientkiewicz said of the various contributions recently. “Cliff [Floyd] can’t do it all. Carlos can’t do it all. Pedro [Martinez] can’t do it all. Guys like myself have to step up at certain times.”

The Mets have now won four in a row and six of their last seven. At 17-14, they’re three games over .500 for the first time since July 9 of last season. Sweep Milwaukee today and they’d be four over for the first time since July 31, 2002.

Mientkiewicz had the night’s biggest hit, an eighth-inning solo shot over the right-field wall that snapped a 5-5 tie. It made no difference that he entered the night hitting .216 or that in his last 50 at-bats before the eighth-inning one, he had tallied just eight hits. He still managed to deliver here.

“I know it’s early,” Mientkiewicz said, “but you sit there and you want to contribute.”

He had company last night. Beltran slammed a pair of two-run shots, had three hits and drove in four runs. And with Braden Looper having pitched three days straight, Hernandez closed out the ninth in 1-2-3 fashion.

Martinez wasn’t bad either, despite a shaky line and despite the fact that he said he did not feel good. He gave up five runs in seven innings, but believe it or not, Martinez (who got the win to move to 4-1) only surrendered three hits. Two of them were homers, though – a three-run shot by Carlos Lee and a two-run homer by Lyle Overbay.

“Just dragging,” he said. “I didn’t click. I didn’t feel good the whole game.”

Even so, Martinez was perfect through the first three innings. But with two on in the fourth, he hung a changeup to Lee, and the cleanup hitter ripped it over the left-field wall for a three-run homer. It was the first homer Martinez had allowed since Adam Dunn’s first-inning three-run shot on Opening Day – a span of 45 innings.

Later in the inning, some overconfident Milwaukee fans began chanting “Who’s your daddy?” But Martinez would rebound from the homer, retiring the next eight Brewers, six by strikeout. He’d finish by fanning 11.

Trailing 3-1 in the fifth, Beltran’s two-run homer to right tied it, and his second two-run homer to right in the seventh made it 5-3 Mets. All six of Beltran’s homers have now come in Martinez starts, and in Pedro’s seven games, Beltran has gone 15-for-31 and driven in 17 runs.

“I can’t explain that,” Beltran said. “I think he said he’s going to put himself in the lineup every day and be scratched before the game so I can think that he will pitch that night. Whatever works.”

Said Martinez, “That will probably fool him.”

Martinez, though, couldn’t hold the lead, serving up Overbay’s two-run shot in the seventh that tied it at 5-5. But Mientkiewicz came through in the eighth, just the latest Met to contribute.