The Mets lost 6-0 to the Brewers in Milwaukee, missing an opportunity to widen their lead in the NL East, as their six-game winning streak came to an end.
The offense managed only four hits against six Milwaukee pitchers, including starter Adrian Houser, as the Mets were shut out for the eighth time this season.
However, they remain a game ahead of the Atlanta Braves, as the Braves lost 3-2 to the Washington Nationals in Atlanta.
The Top Takeaways from the loss:
1) The Mets were hoping the return of Drew Smith from the Injury List would be an important reinforcement for their bullpen, but his first appearance proved costly as he gave up a grand slam with two outs in the seventh inning to Mike Brosseau.
Buck Showalter went for the right-hander when the Brewers sent Brosseau up to pinch-hit for Rowdy Tellez against left-hander David Peterson.
Smith got ahead 0-2 but after Brosseau fouled off two 97-mph fastballs he went to the slider and hung it badly in the middle of the plate. It wound up going over the left-field fence to give the Brewers a 6-0 lead.
2) Taijuan Walker took the loss but gave the Mets a solid start. Through six innings he gave up only one run, a fifth-inning home run by Willy Adames, but quickly got in trouble in the seventh, giving up a walk and two singles, giving up his second run of the day.
Showalter then went to the bullpen, first to lefty Peterson, who got what seemed to be an important strikeout of Christian Yelich, and then to Smith, who gave up the grand slam.
As a result, Walker was charged with four earned runs and his ERA rose from 3.42 to 3.53. In taking the loss his record fell to 12-5.
3) Brandon Nimmo left the game in the first inning with what the Met said was tightness in his left quad muscle.
Nimmo has been injury-prone for much of his career, but this season he had stayed healthy and on Wednesday was playing in his 142nd game of the season, the most ever for him in his seven big league seasons. The only other time he played more than 100 in a season was 2018, when he played 140.
Jeff McNeil also seemed to hurt his right knee when he slid in the outfield to avoid a collision with Eduardo Escobar. McNeil stayed in the game but was favoring the knee the rest of the way.
4) It has been a storyline all season, and with 11 games still to play, the Mets set a modern MLB record for getting hit by pitches. With three HBPs on the day the Mets ran their total to 106, the record-breaker coming in the ninth when Luis Guillorme was hit on the foot.
Not surprisingly, Mark Canha played a big role in setting the record. He was hit twice in the game after replacing Nimmo in the first inning, setting a team record by getting plunked 24 times in a season. The second one tied the MLB record set only a year ago by the Cincinnati Reds.
Showalter, who has been annoyed all season with all the HBPs, called for the ball after the Guillorme HBP, and apparently wants it as a keepsake of some sort.
5) With Max Scherzer back from the IL, Peterson continued his transition to the bullpen, used as a reliever for the second time in five days as he fills a need for a second left-hander to Joely Rodriguez.
Peterson came on with runners at first and second and no outs in the seventh, and after a sacrifice bunt moved the runners over, he struck out Yelich with a 97 mph fastball on the outside corner.
Coming into the game Peterson had held left-handed hitters to a .190 batting average.
6) SNY’s sideline reporter Steve Gelbs won the sausage race in Milwaukee, displaying a strong finishing kick in the Polish Sausage costume to nip the other sausages at the wire.