CLEVELAND — Mitch Talbot didn’t walk a batter Wednesday night, tossing 63 of his 95 pitches for strikes.

Maybe he should have thrown more balls.

With his pitches finding too much of the plate on too many occasions, Talbot was battered around the ballpark, paving the way for the Indi­ans’ 8-4 loss to the Mets, who tied a National League record with four consecutive doubles in one inning.

Talbot, who came in bidding for his team-lead­ing eighth victory of the season, instead took his fifth loss, allowing season highs in the runs (eight) and hits (13) departments over just 5 2 / 3 innings.

“Mitch started the game real good and then just lost command of his fastball,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta, whose last-place team has dropped three straight. “He just couldn’t com­mand his fastball all night.”

Talbot began his outing with two scoreless innings before running into big trouble in the third.

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After retiring the first batter of the inning, the right-hander allowed six consecutive hits, the last four doubles, as the Mets took control with a five-run third.

New York tied a season-high with seven doubles on the night — six off Talbot.

Talbot bounced back to work two more score­less innings, but he never made it out of the sixth, New York stringing together three hits to start the inning and chasing him with three more runs.

“It was just one of those nights when I couldn’t get the ball to go to anyone,” Talbot said. “I can think of a couple that I left it right there for them to hit.”

Talbot had other factors than Mets hitters working against him.

He and Dominican catcher Carlos Santana had problems with signs when a runner was on second base, something that occurred quite often on this night. At one point, Acta had to go to the mound to iron things out between the pitcher and catcher.

“We had a couple sign mishaps,” Talbot said. “We weren’t really on the same page but we got it taken care of. It hurt a couple times.”

Left fielder Shelley Duncan, who hasn’t had a lot of experi­ence patrolling the outfield at Progressive Field, also didn’t do Talbot any favors, misplay­ing two of the Mets’ doubles in the third — one that bounced off the wall and got by him on the ricochet.

“We didn’t sign Shelley because we thought he would win a Gold Glove,” Acta said. “We signed him for his bat. We can’t be blaming people for playing balls off the wall. You’ve got to get groundballs or balls that don’t go off the wall if you want to win.”

Duncan made amends by driving in Cleveland’s first two runs on a home run in the fourth off Mets starter Jon Niese. It was the ninth time in 10 games that the power-chal­lenged Indians have gone deep.

Duncan’s long ball accounted for two of the three runs the Indians managed against Niese, who allowed eight hits over seven innings. Cleveland’s other run off the left-hander came on a single in the fifth from Santana, who slid past second base after trying to stretch a double and was tagged out.

Talbot is the first Indians pitcher to allow 13 hits or more since Jake Westbrook surrendered the same in a 7-6 win over Boston in 2006. He is the first Cleveland pitcher to allow six doubles in one start since Chad Ogea in a 4-1 loss to the Red Sox in 1994.

The Indians have caught the Mets at a bad time. New York has won six straight games and is 17-5 since May 22, accounting for the best record in the majors over the span.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.