Mets and downpur beat Cubs in rain shortened game

Dillon Gee had trouble getting a grip. His problems, though, hardly compared to those of Cubs reliever Justin Berg. Gee recovered from a wild start while Berg never found the strike zone on a raw, messy Wednesday night as the New York Mets beat the Cubs 7-4 in a rain-shortened game.The game was called with two outs in the top of the seventh inning after a 41-minute delay. It was 47 degrees for the first pitch with a fierce northern wind blowing in from Lake Michigan, and a fog set in around Wrigley Field and kept growing thicker.It was particularly bad for Berg, who took over for Casey Coleman (2-4) during the Mets’ five-run second inning. Berg came in with runners on second and third and threw 12 pitches — all balls. His three walks forced home two runs. Gee (4-0) walked two while allowing four runs in the first, but bounced back to throw five scoreless innings and retire 16 of the last 18 batters he faced.Carlos Beltran doubled, tripled, scored twice and drove in two more for the Mets. Beltran and Daniel Murphy hit two-run doubles in the big second off Coleman and Berg. The Mets, who had lost three straight, go into Thursday’s series finale with a chance to break even on their six-game road trip. Both starters were coming off spotless outings, but faltered in the long early innings, bad news for teams racing against storms moving into the Chicago area. Quade didn’t like the stoppage in the seventh, especially with his team trailing. He charged onto the field and argued with the umpires for a couple of minutes as the field was being covered in front of him. After throwing 7 2/3 scoreless innings of two-hit ball against Washington his last time out, Gee put himself in trouble in the first and gave up two-run doubles to Reed Johnson and Alfonso Soriano.If Coleman’s 5 2/3 shutout innings at Florida last Saturday marked one of his best career outings, this was one of his worst. Jason Pridie and Ruben Tejada singled to open the second and Jose Reyes and Josh Thole hit one-out singles.Beltran, whose .398 career average at Wrigley entering the game was the highest of all active players, hit a tying double — Thole would have scored on the hit, too, but fell down rounding third and had to scramble back to the bag. Beltran’s hit chased Coleman, who was charged with six runs, seven hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings. Berg relieved and soon was done. James Russell escaped the inning by striking out the next two batters, meaning that Berg wasn’t actually charged with any of the Mets’ runs in the inning, during which New York turned a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 lead. While Coleman wasn’t around to recover from his struggles, Gee settled down after his early problems. He threw six innings, allowing four runs and four hits. Gee even drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. The weather finally caught up with the teams in the top of the seventh when a steady rain that began in the sixth intensified. The umpires called for the tarps with two Mets on base, two outs and Thole at the plate. Quade wasn’t too happy. “If you’re going to play in it, I thought you keep playing,” he said. “[Crew chief] Dale [Scott] had a forecast and I had a forecast. I think we were coming at it from two different directions.

NOTES—Mets 3B David Wright is scheduled to meet with a physical therapist in New York on Wednesday to discuss next step in his rehab from a stress fracture in his lower back. Wright hasn’t played since May 15….Mets LF Jason Bay was back in lineup after leaving Tuesday’s game because of tightness in his right calf…..This marked the first time the Cubs needed three pitchers (Coleman, Berg and Russell) to make it through the first two innings of a game since June 29, 1989, vs. San Francisco (Paul Kilgus, Jeff Pico and Les Lancaster).