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Final Score: NY Mets 4 - Milwaukee 2

Milwaukee, WI (Sports Network) - Carlos Delgado hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth and the New York Mets went on to best Milwaukee 4-2 in the opener of a three-game set from Miller Park.

Jose Reyes, Daniel Murphy and Carlos Beltran joined Delgado with two hits while Beltran also scored twice for the Mets, who have won four of their last five to move two games ahead of the Phillies for the top spot in the NL East. Philadelphia dropped a 7-4 decision to Washington Monday.

Starter Johan Santana limited the Brew Crew to a pair of runs on seven hits, while walking one and matching a season-high with 10 strikeouts. The lefty took a no-decision but ran his unbeaten streak (5-0) to 12 starts. Nelson Figueroa (3-3) was handed the win after pitching one-plus innings of relief.

"His changeup was really tough today. It was hard to see and he had good arm speed with it," Brewers manager Ned Yost said of Santana.

Ryan Braun had three hits and an RBI, including a pair of doubles for Milwaukee, which was coming off a three-game weekend sweep of the Pirates. The Brewers own a 5 1/2 game lead over the Phillies in the NL wild card standings but trail the Cubs by 4 1/2 games for the NL Central lead. Houston downed Chicago 3-0 Monday.

Starter Ben Sheets had to leave after the fifth inning with tightness in his left groin. The right-hander was cruising with a 1-0 lead at the time, having given up only two hits and one walk but was handed a no-decision when the bullpen blew the lead.

"He started to get some tightness and I wasn't going to take any chances of him pulling it," Yost said of Sheets' injury.

The Mets surged ahead with three runs in the eighth off Eric Gagne (4-3). Murphy doubled to left leading off and came home on Delgado's two-run homer just over the fence in right. Beltran followed with a single and scored on an RBI double from Ryan Church for a 4-2 lead.

New York used a combination of three pitchers to work around a Braun leadoff double in the eighth, and Luis Ayala came on to close out Milwaukee in order in the ninth for his fourth save of the season.

Milwaukee grabbed an early 1-0 lead off Santana when J.J. Hardy tripled to left and scored when Braun followed with a double to left.

Santana and Sheets traded scoreless frames until the sixth when Sheets was forced from the game with groin tightness and Santana balked in a run. Prince Fielder led off the home sixth with a single to right and moved up on a Corey Hart single back up the middle. Mike Cameron advanced the runners with a sacrifice and Santana brought in Fielder with a balk. The lefty recovered to get Bill Hall on strikes and induced a groundout from Jason Kendall to hold the Brewers lead at 2-0.

"They're (Brewers) an aggressive team. You have to show them you can throw the pitch (changeup) and keep them off-balance," Santana said.

New York chipped a run off the lead in the seventh. Beltran doubled off Brian Shouse to start the inning and moved to third on consecutive groundouts. David Riske came on to walk pinch-hitters Marlon Anderson and Fernando Tatis before Mitch Stetter entered and uncorked a wild pitch to score Beltran. Reyes hit a fly ball to center for the third out.