NEW YORK (AP) -- Derek Bell, Mike Piazza and the New York Mets made it another lost afternoon for Kevin Tapani.

Bell and Piazza homered and the Mets won their seventh in a row, beating up the Chicago Cubs 15-8 Sunday and handing Tapani his 12th straight loss.

	Derek Bell's three-run homer in the fourth was part of a 4-for-4 day with four RBI.

Tapani's skid is the second-longest in the 125-year history of the Cubs. Dutch McCall dropped 13 consecutive decisions in 1948.

"I tried to do a lot of things and nothing was able to click," Tapani said. "I couldn't keep it in the ballpark."

Making his 300th major league start, Tapani (0-3) was tagged for a career-high 10 runs -- nine earned. He lasted only 3 2/3 innings, shaking his head on the mound before walking off without showing any emotion.

First-year Cubs manager Don Baylor was much more animated. Throwing around obscenities in a clubhouse outburst, he dressed down his team after its eighth loss in 10 games.

"I'm not going to be embarrassed like that," he said. "I don't expect to lose. It's how you lose, and I'm tired of the way we're losing.

"I'm going to stop it somehow, if I have to play this guy or that guy or pitch someone," he said. "Guys are going to have to play up to major league standards."

On an afternoon in which little went right other than Sammy Sosa's home run -- there was a collision on an easy popup -- the Cubs found no luck at the end of the day, either. Their plane to Houston was delayed, stuck in upstate New York.

Bell, Piazza and several other Mets starters were able to leave early, as New York built a 15-3 lead by batting around in the fourth and fifth innings.

"We're doing a lot of things well offensively right now," Piazza said. "It's a wave. You just want to ride it as long as you can."

The Mets got 18 hits, and every starter had one by the fourth. New York's winning streak is its longest since taking nine in a row in May 1998.

Mike Hampton (2-3), who lost to Chicago on Opening Day in Tokyo, won his second straight start as the Mets completed a three-game sweep.

Bell finished 4-for-4, driving in four runs and scoring three. His three-run homer highlighted a seven-run fourth and came one pitch after coach Oscar Acosta visited Tapani.

Bell has 12 hits in his last 14 at-bats, with seven RBI and seven runs scored. In his last 11 games, he's 26-for-48 (.542).

"There's a lot of things I can do in the second slot," Bell said. "I can hit-and-run, I can hit for power, I can steal a base."

Bell singled with one out in the first and Edgardo Alfonzo hit a two-run homer. Piazza followed with a 460-foot shot to center field.

Piazza doubled off the right-center field wall in the fourth and hit a two-run double off the left-center field wall in the fifth to finish Tapani.

"Lasers," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "I'm surprised they even come off the wall, that they don't just stick."

Sosa hit a two-run homer, his sixth, in the third that tied it at 3. Hampton had an RBI single in the fourth as the Mets broke away.

Hampton pitched seven innings, giving up three earned runs. Damon Buford hit a two-run homer in the Cubs eighth off Rich Rodriguez.

Tapani is 0-12 in 15 starts since last winning at Colorado last June 24. He gave up 11 hits and left with a 6.83 ERA after five starts this season. He has allowed 41 hits in 29 innings.

"If you go out there thinking you have a burden on you, you probably shouldn't be going out there," Tapani said. "But when you get knocked out in the fourth inning, it's obviously bad."

Game notes
Tapani began his big league career with the Mets in 1989. His next start would likely come at home over the weekend against Arizona. ... The Mets' seven-run fourth was their biggest inning since they scored seven against Greg Maddux and Atlanta last Sept. 29. ... Mets SS Rey Ordonez appeared to tweak his side running out a bad-hop double in the fourth. He left after the fifth, but was OK. ... Hampton's four walks gave him 27 in 28 1/3 innings. ... With Rick Reed nursing a sore left thumb, Mets reliever Pat Mahomes will start Monday's makeup against Los Angeles.