Sean Manaea pitched poorly, Rhys Hoskins hit a grand slam, the Mets had a bad defensive game, Lindor didn’t look healthy, Carlos Mendoza got ejected, and Francisco Alvarez got hurt. It was a game straight out of a nightmare.
The Mets lost to the Brewers 8-4 in about as nightmarish of a fashion as you can imagine. Just about everything that could have gone wrong for the Mets went wrong in this game at a time when the entire season hangs in the balance.
It was clear pretty immediately that Sean Manaea did not have his best stuff. Brice Turang—who would go on to torment the Mets all evening—led off the bottom of the first with a single that went over a leaping Francisco Lindor, which was only notable because it was the type of leaping grab we’ve seen a healthy Lindor make many times before. Manaea bounced back to retire the next two batters, but then walked back-to-back hitters to load the bases. It was then none other than Rhys Hoskins who strode to the plate and he hit a grand slam because of course he did. It could be no other way.
The Brewers added another run in the second due to some shoddy defense by the Mets, which would be another theme of this detestable evening. With one out, Blake Perkins hit a grounder to short, but Lindor was unable to get any power behind his throw to first and spiked it, allowing Perkins to reach first safely. It was another play where one couldn’t help but wonder if a healthy Lindor makes a clean throw. Manaea then picked Perkins off, but he still reached second base safely anyway. Brice Turang (yes, Turang again) then hit a shallow liner to center that Taylor dove and missed, resulting in a double and an unearned run for Manaea, whose pitch count continued to rise. But he did manage to stop the bleeding there.
The top of the third inning was the only brief period in the game that went poorly for the Brewers. It began with a very scary and unfortunate moment when Francisco Alvarez hit a fly ball to foul territory in right field and Sal Frelick (arguably foolishly, in a game that does not matter for the Brewers) jumped up against the wall in a bad spot where there is a cutout in the wall and therefore hit a chainlink fence instead, falling to the ground in obvious pain. He left the game walking very gingerly and was replaced in right field by Garrett Mitchell. Alvarez ended up walking and then with two outs Mark Vientos hit a two-run homer to put the Mets on the board and give them at least a glimmer of hope.
But things quickly unraveled for the Mets again and just kept getting worse. In the fourth, the Mets were rallying and got two men on base via a hit by pitch and a walk. Francisco Alvarez was then called out strikes to end the inning by Ramon De Jesus on a pitch that was well out of the zone—and it was not the only call in the at-bat that De Jesus missed. Incensed, Alvarez spiked his helmet on the ground and Carlos Mendoza quickly stepped in, getting in De Jesus’ face to get tossed instead of his catcher. The rest of the game was managed by bench coach John Gibbons.
The Brewers added yet another run in the bottom of the inning thanks to some batted ball luck that went their way. With two outs, Brice Turang (Are you sensing a pattern?) reached on an infield hit and then Garrett Mitchell hit a well-placed slow bouncer that went over the head of Pete Alonso for a double, advancing Turang to third. Jackson Chourio then hit a hard grounder on which José Iglesias made a nice diving stop, but he was unable to throw out Chourio and a run came home to make it 6-2 Brewers. The Mets challenged the call at first base, but it was upheld. This closed the book on Sean Manaea, who was charged with six runs—five of them earned—through 3 2⁄3 innings of work. José Buttó then came in the game and recorded the final out of the fourth and pitched a scoreless fifth as well.
Joe Ross pitched three scoreless innings in middle relief for Milwaukee after Frankie Montas left the game having completed four innings of work. The Brewers added yet another run off Danny Young in sixth. With two outs, the second coming on a fantastic leaping grab by Tyrone Taylor in center field, Danny Young walked—you guessed it—Brice Turang. Turang then stole second and Young threw two wild pitches to complete yet another trip around the bases for the Brewers’ second baseman. That ended Young’s night and Adam Ottavino had his first good outing in recent memory, recording the final out of the sixth and striking out three in the seventh for a scoreless frame.
But the horrors were not over for the Mets. Oh, no. With one out in the top of the seventh, Francisco Alvarez reached base via a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. He then advanced to third as well on a groundout by Tyrone Taylor, but he laid at third base in pain, seemingly unable to get up and clutching his back. He was removed from the game with what was later diagnosed as back spasms. In a cruel stroke of irony, the Mets rallied in the following inning, but it was Luis Torrens rather than Alvarez that came to bat in the big spot and his plate appearance ended with the predictable result. With one out, the Mets loaded the bases against Hoby Milner on a pair of singles by Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso and a José Iglesias hit by pitch. Harrison Bader then hit a fly ball to deep left-center that seemed destined for the gap, but Jackson Chourio made a tremendous leaping grab against the wall because not a single thing went the Mets’ way tonight. It ended up being a sacrifice fly instead to make the score 7-3. J.D. Martinez then hit a shallow fly ball that Brice Turang dropped to allow another run to score to bring the tying run to the plate. The Brewers brought in The Other Megill Brother to face Luis Torrens and Torrens flew out to right on the first pitch he saw from Trevor Megill, which felt like the last gasp for the Mets.
Gary Sánchez hit a solo home run off Alex Young in the eighth to extend the Brewers’ lead to 8-4. Megill worked around a leadoff hit by Lindor, who did reach base three times despite clearly not being 100%, to pitch a scoreless ninth to cap off what was truly a horrific night for the Mets in just about every sense. They are now tied with the Braves in the Wild Card race and pending the outcome of the Padres-Diamondbacks game currently in progress, could end the night in a three-way tie.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Fangraphs
Big Mets winner: Francisco Lindor, +3.9% WPA
Big Mets loser: Sean Manaea, -34.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: -34.6% WPA
Mets hitters: -15.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Mark Vientos’ two-run homer in the top of the third, +9.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Rhys Hoskins hits a grand slam in the bottom of the first, -27.7% WPA