Brewers can’t muster enough offense, fall 3-2 to Mets

New York takes the series in a close game

Box Score

Jose Quintana and David Peterson both pitched for the Mets in the Brewers’ last game of the season last year, which you’d be forgiven for trying to forget about. Tonight, they faced off against each other with Quintana in the other uniform. Both pitched pretty well, but Peterson was just a little better, and with a couple of Brewers stars (Christian Yelich and Brice Turang) out of the lineup today, Milwaukee couldn’t quite find enough offense.

The Brewers tried to put a two-out rally together in the top of the first, when Jackson Chourio turned an 0-2 count into a six-pitch walk and Rhys Hoskins almost put one in the seats. But Hoskins didn’t quite get all of it, and it died on the warning track, and Peterson had a scoreless first. Quintana got off to a nice start in the bottom of the inning when he struck out Starling Marte, got a weak groundout from Francisco Lindor, and struck out Juan Soto.

Peterson struck Isaac Collins out on three pitches to start the second, but followed that with a one-out walk to Caleb Durbin. Eric Haase, though, hit into an easy 4-3 double play on the first pitch he saw, and Peterson had a quick three-batter inning despite the walk.

Quintana got Pete Alonso out on a lineout to short to start the bottom of the second, but Brandon Nimmo, who hit a grand slam off of Jacob Misiorowski yesterday, snuck a solo homer over the right field wall with one out — it bounced off the top of the wall and went out. After a Mark Vientos groundout, Luis Torrens almost homered on a ball that was about a foot above the strike zone, but Frelick tracked it down for the last out.

Peterson had no issues in the top of the third with three consecutive groundball outs. Marte knocked a two-out single in the bottom of the inning, but Quintana got Lindor on a flyout to right to end the inning.

After a William Contreras walk to start the fourth, Chourio struck out looking on a high slider, a call that neither Chourio nor Pat Murphy was very happy with. Hoskins followed with a line drive up the middle that could’ve been a double play, but it glanced off of Brett Baty’s glove and into center field, a play that was ruled an error on Baty (could’ve gone either way). Collins hit into a fielder’s choice but avoided the double play, giving Durbin a chance with runners on the corners and two outs. Durbin fouled off a bunch of pitches and worked to a full count before chopping a weak grounder to the left side of the infield that Vientos had no chance on for an RBI infield hit. Haase had a chance with two outs and runners on first and second, but he struck out to end the inning. Still, Durbin’s hit had tied the game at one.

Quintana did a nice job versus the middle of the Mets’ order after his team tied it up. He got Soto on a groundout and Alonso on a flyout, and he was helped by a nice sliding play by Andruw Monasterio on a grounder to the first-base side of second base that ended the inning.

Joey Ortiz led off the fifth with a solid double into the left field gap, 106 mph off the bat. Monasterio followed with what functioned as a sacrifice bunt (but wasn’t done on purpose, so it goes as a 6-3 groundout in the book), and the Brewers had a runner at third with only one out. But Ortiz went on contact when Frelick hit a grounder directly at Alonso, and Ortiz was toast at home plate for the second out. With Contreras at the plate, Peterson did the rare third attempt at picking off Frelick and almost got him, but didn’t, and Frelick was awarded second base. But Contreras flew out to left, and Milwaukee let a couple of scoring opportunities go by the wayside.

Vientos led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to left, and one began to worry that the Brewers’ missed opportunities were going to springboard the Mets into taking a lead. But Torrens grounded into a double play just two pitches later, and Baty got a center-cut fastball and crushed a line drive, but it was right at Chourio for the third out.

A Chourio single gave the Brewers a baserunner to start the sixth, but Hoskins followed with a double play. Collins was hit by a 3-2 pitch that gave Milwaukee another chance, but Durbin popped out to shallow left to end the frame. Quintana struck out Tyrone Taylor to start the bottom of the sixth and almost got the second out on a nice play by Monasterio, who fielded a Marte grounder way on the left-field side of second base and made the throw while running in the opposite direction. But his throw was just a little off, and Hoskins had to move his foot a fraction of an inch off the base to make the catch, and Marte was safe.

That fraction of an inch made a difference, as Lindor found a hole on a pitch that was way outside, and Marte went first to third, and the Mets were in a good spot to retake the lead with Soto at the plate. It felt like Milwaukee might get out of it after Soto fouled off a 1-1 fastball right down the middle, and he hit a ground ball that looked like it could have been an inning-ending double play … but it was Monasterio out there, not Brice Turang, and the ball was just out of Monasterio’s reach, making it into the outfield and allowing Marte to score. Lindor advanced to third, and with runners once again on the corners, Quintana’s night was over.

Before his book was closed, though, the Brewers needed to get out of this still-existent jam. That job would be given, as it has been many times this year, to Nick Mears. But Alonso was waiting for Mears to throw a first-pitch fastball, and Mears obliged, as Alonso smashed one that, fortunately for Milwaukee, was about two feet short of being a homer — he’d instead have to settle with an RBI double. Nimmo was next with Soto at third and Alonso at second, but Mears struck Nimmo out to stem the bleeding, and patched the wound with a strikeout of Vientos. The Mets were up 3-1, but it could’ve been worse, and the Brewers were still in it.

Quintana didn’t pitch badly, but his game relies on those plays that go an inch or two in one way or the other to go his way, and in the sixth inning, there were two plays — the Hoskins foot and the Soto grounder — that were an inch in the wrong direction. One could question the wisdom of giving Turang, your best defensive player, a day off when the pitcher who most relies on contact was on the hill, but we won’t dwell on it. Quintana finished with 5 ¹⁄₃ innings, six hits, no walks, three strikeouts, and three runs allowed.

Haase and Ortiz hit back-to-back groundouts to start the seventh, but Monasterio — perhaps feeling like he could’ve done better in the bottom of the sixth — got a 91-mph fastball that was middle-in and crushed it down the left field line at 100 mph for a solo homer, his first of the season.

That was Peterson’s 100th pitch, but Mets manager Carlos Mendoza let him pitch to Frelick, who put a perfectly placed grounder between Baty and Lindor; Lindor got a glove on it, but Frelick had an infield hit, and Peterson was done after 6 ²⁄₃ innings. Ryne Stanek was the new pitcher for the Mets, and Contreras was up, and he crushed a line drive, but hit it right at Vientos at third, and the inning ended. But Milwaukee had halved the lead to 3-2.

Grant Anderson was on for the Brewers in the bottom of the seventh, and he worked a nice, clean, 1-2-3 inning. Stanek, still in after facing one batter in the seventh, struck out Chourio, Hoskins, and Collins in order in the top of the eighth, and the Brewers were three outs away from dropping the series.

If there was any chance of winning this one, the Brewers needed to keep the Mets at three runs. Abner Uribe, who hadn’t pitched since Sunday, was in to face the top of the New York order. Uribe had no trouble with Marte and Lindor but allowed a two-hit single to Soto, and Uribe would have to deal with Alonso. It sure looked like Uribe dealt with him when he dropped a front-door slider in the bottom of the zone on a 2-2 pitch, but it was called a ball (it wasn’t), and the next slider missed wide, and Alonso was on with a walk. Chris Hook and Contreras came out to talk to Uribe before Nimmo came to the plate, and whatever they said worked, as Uribe struck out Nimmo to strand two runners and keep the Mets’ lead at one.

Edwin Díaz, who threw 21 pitches across 1 ¹⁄₃ innings to get a save in game two of yesterday’s doubleheader, was on to pitch the ninth. Durbin was first, and he fouled off a few pitches before striking out on a foul tip on a slider up and in. Christian Yelich entered as a pinch-hitter for Haase, and he knocked a single down the left field line to give Milwaukee a baserunner. Turang pinch-hit for Ortiz and swung for the fences on the first pitch but missed. Yelich broke for second on the second pitch to Turang and was initially called safe, but New York challenged; it was a very close play and probably could have stood on review, but Yelich was called out on review. Maybe, maybe not.

In any case, it was now 1-1 on Turang with two outs and nobody on. Three pitches later, Díaz struck him out, and the game was over, with the Mets winning 3-2.

Jeff Levering let us know many times that this is a game of inches, and while it was a little irritating, he wasn’t wrong. But the Brewers needed more offense in this one, and they didn’t get it. With the series loss, the Mets sit 1.5 games clear of the Brewers in the NL Wild Card standings, though Milwaukee is still firmly in the second spot.

This was a well-pitched game, for the most part, but Peterson was just a little better than his former teammate. The Brewers mustered just six hits and no one player had more than one, with the extra-base hits coming in the form of Ortiz’s double and Monasterio’s homer.

No rest for the Brewers, as they have to travel tonight (after a night game and a 30-minute rain delay) to Miami, where they start a three-game weekend series with the Marlins, who’ve won 10 of their last 12 games, including eight straight before their loss to Minnesota on Wednesday.