The Mets blew a 3-2 lead when the Brewers scored three runs off reliever Phil Maton and won Game 2 of the Wild Card series in Milwaukee, 5-3.
With the series tied 1-1, Game 3 will be played Thursday night.
Here are the top takeaways from the Mets' loss...
- Maton let the game get away in the eighth inning, coming on as the third Mets reliever.
Rookie Jackson Chourio struck first with his second home run of the night, tying the game with a solo shot to the opposite field leading off, on a 91-mph cutter in a 1-1 count -- a pitch that caught too much of the middle of the plate.
Chourio also led off the first inning with a home run against Sean Manaea.
Maton promptly gave up another hit but got a double-play ground ball to clear the bases with two outs. All three balls were hit over 100 mph off the bat.
After Willy Adames singled to left with two outs, lefthanded-hitting Garrett Mitchell, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Gary Sanchez an inning earlier, hit a first-pitch curveball over the wall in right-center for the game-winning home run.
- Manaea gave the Mets a solid start, if not the dominance that had become practically routine for him through most of August and September.
The left-hander allowed two runs but lasted only five innings. One run came on a 0-2 mistake fastball in the middle of the plate to Chourio that wound up in the right field seats.
Manaea allowed six hits and no walks while recording four strikeouts. For the second straight start, following his clunker against these same Brewers last Friday, he didn’t have his late-life fastball at the top of the zone that had become his primary weapon since adopting the Chris Sale-like sidearm delivery.
He got only five swings-and-misses in his 86 pitches, which probably had a lot to do with Carlos Mendoza deciding to pull him after five innings.
- Pete Alonso’s struggles with runners in scoring position, which was an issue all season, took a bizarre turn for the worse on Wednesday when he tripped over his own bat coming out of the batter’s box, ensuring that he hit into an inning-ending double play in the first inning, leaving a runner at third base.
Alonso smoked the ball, 110.1 mph off the bat, and it handcuffed shortstop Willy Adames, forcing him to take an extra couple of seconds to gain control and toss to second baseman Brice Turang. The delay seemed long enough that Alonso would have beaten the return throw and allowed Mark Vientos to score from third, except he stepped on his bat after dropping it in front him, and went to the ground.
Then in the fifth inning, with Brandon Nimmo at second and two outs, Alonso struck out swinging.
Alonso is now 4-for-38 (.105) with all four hits being singles since he hit his last home run on Sept. 19.
- The Mets took advantage of an error to rally for two runs in the second, as Brewers starter Frankie Montas dropped a flip from Rhys Hoskins while covering first base on what looked like a routine play, allowing Starling Marte to reach base.
From there the next three hitters made Montas pay, as Tyrone Taylor singled Marte to third, Francisco Alvarez then delivered an RBI single to center, and Francisco Lindor scored Taylor from third base with a sacrifice fly to center.
- When Jose Iglesias singled to right in the top of the second inning, it extended his hitting streak to 24 games, unofficially anyway, since postseason stats go into a separate category.
But to put it into perspective, only three players in Mets history have had longer streaks: Moises Alou, David Wright, and Wilson Ramos.
Game MVP: Jackson Chourio
The rookie hit two home runs, proving to be the difference in the game.