DETROIT — Jim Leyland blamed himself for some of Daniel Schlereth's struggles.
The Detroit reliever was having none of it.
"I know he's trying to take some of it off me, but I'm the one that has to go out there and make pitches," Schlereth said. "There's no excuses."
Schlereth allowed grand slams to Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran in back-to-back innings, and the Tigers lost to the New York Mets 14-3 on Tuesday night. The Mets had gone nearly two years without hitting a grand slam.
Detroit starter Rick Porcello (6-6) allowed seven runs and 11 hits in 3 2-3 innings, and Schlereth's line was even more unappealing: six runs and four hits in 1 1-3 innings.
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"Part of that is my fault, because I haven't gotten him enough work to keep him sharp," said Leyland, the Tigers' manager. "He went out there today, and he didn't have good command. He got behind guys, and then he had to come in and throw the ball over the plate and they hit him."
The Mets (40-39) have a winning record for the first time since they were 3-2 in early April.
New York had been without a grand slam since Angel Pagan hit one Aug. 1, 2009, before Bay and Beltran cleared the bases in the fourth and fifth innings.
"Beltran and Bay are professional hitters, and they did their jobs," Schlereth said. "I wasn't throwing terrible pitches, but they weren't great, and the Mets were hitting them."
Jose Reyes went 4 for 4 with a double and a triple before being lifted for a pinch-runner after a seventh-inning walk.
New York's R.A. Dickey (4-7) gave up three runs and 10 hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out six on a night without much stress.
"What you guys are doing here is a little bit ridiculous," Dickey joked when reporters surrounded him after the game. "If I'm even mentioned in an article, I'm going to boycott."
The Mets scored 14 runs for the second time in three games. They beat Texas 14-5 on Saturday. New York has scored 36 runs in its last three games.
Reyes and Pagan reached base five times each. Pagan had two singles, a double and two walks.
The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the first on RBI doubles by Daniel Murphy and Pagan. They added seven runs in the fourth – all after Porcello retired the first two batters. That was an ugly turnabout for the Tigers, who scored seven runs with two outs in the eighth inning on Sunday against Arizona.
Josh Thole started New York's big rally with a solo homer, his first of the season. Reyes followed with his 15th triple and he scored on a single by Willie Harris to make it 4-0. Beltran and Murphy added two more singles, with Harris scoring on Murphy's.
Porcello was pulled after that.
"He threw some bad pitches that they hit, and he threw some good pitches that they hit," Leyland said. "They were aggressive and they beat us up pretty well."
Schlereth relieved Porcello and walked Pagan to load the bases. Bay hit a drive that stayed fair down the left-field line, ending his team's grand slam drought and making it 9-0.
The Milwaukee Brewers are now the team with the longest dry spell, with no grand slams since June 14, 2010, according to STATS LLC. The Mets gave up 18 grand slams during their drought, the most in baseball.
Beltran's grand slam in the fifth was more toward left-center and it gave the Mets a 13-0 lead. The last club with grand slams in consecutive innings was Washington on July 27, 2009, according to STATS.
It was the ninth career grand slam for Beltran and the third for Bay.
Austin Jackson and Andy Dirks homered for the Tigers, and Justin Turner hit an RBI single in the eighth for New York to make it 14-3.
NOTES: Reyes played his 1,000th game. He has 98 triples and 360 stolen bases. According to statistics provided by the Mets from the Elias Sports Bureau, the only other player with that many triples and stolen bases in his first 1,000 games – since 1898, when the modern stolen base rule was enacted – was Ty Cobb, who had 106 triples and 391 steals. ... Leyland said before the game he plans to rest OF Magglio Ordonez on Thursday, when this three-game series ends with a day game.