Brewers 5, Mets 3 (American Family Field, Milwaukee, WI)
Series Tied 1-1
WP: Joe Ross (1-0) LP: Phil Maton (0-1)
SV: Devin Williams (1)
Seat On The Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Today's Seat On The Korner goes to Brewers' outfielder Jackson Chourio, who was the difference for Milwaukee. The budding young star led off the game with a homer off of Sean Manaea and tied it in the eighth with another opposite-field blast off of Phil Maton, setting the stage for the Brewers' game-winning rally in the process.
Need To Know:
The Brewers won their first postseason game since 2021, snapping a six-game postseason losing streak in the process.
Milwaukee snapped a string of 20 consecutive postseason losses when they trailed after seven innings, a run that dated all the way back to Game 4 of the 1982 World Series.
The Mets finally threw out a Brewers' base stealer in the sixth inning when Francisco Alvarez threw a perfect strike to second base to nail Garrett Mitchell. Milwaukee went 17-for-17 on stolen base attempts against the Mets during the regular season.
Brice Turang continued to torment the Mets by going 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored, giving him five hits in eight at bats in this series.
Pending the final result of the Braves-Padres contest, this series will be just the second Wild Card series to go the distance since the format was adopted prior to the 2022 season. The other one also involved the Mets, who were eliminated by the San Diego Padres at Citi Field in 2022 in Game 3.
Turning Point
This one was fairly obvious. The Mets were stuck on three runs for a long time, leaving most observers feeling like they failed to bury the Brewers. The failure to tack on runs came back to haunt them in the eighth when Chourio greeted Maton with the game-tying home run, swinging the momentum of this game (and potentially the series) with one blast.
Three Things
Failure To Insure Ensured Failure
The Mets had plenty of opportunities to extend their lead against Milwaukee but couldn't capitalize, going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine men on base. Two rallies were essentially killed with double plays from Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez, which allowed the Brewers time to find the weak link in the Mets' bullpen and extend their season.
Questions For Carlos Mendoza
One night after hitting every button correctly in his postseason debut, Carlos Mendoza had a much shakier night two. Mendoza opted not to push Manaea, who looked strong most of the night, past five innings on a night where he knew he only had three outs from Edwin Diaz. Instead of aggressively pushing the envelope, such as pinch-running for J.D. Martinez in the sixth after the DH drew a leadoff walk or going to Jesse Winker when the Brewers went to Joe Ross in the eighth, Mendoza held his bullets until it was too late to effectively use them. The choice to use Maton, who was working for the fourth time in five days, against the top of the Brewers' batting order also backfired spectacularly and ensures the Mets have to fight for their lives tomorrow night.
Tough Sledding For The Polar Bear
The night got off to an inauspicious start for Alonso, who tripped over his own bat running to first base and got doubled off to end the first inning. Alonso did pick up an opposite field single later in the game but has just five hits since his last home run on September 19th, all of which have been singles. The Mets have seen Alonso kill rallies while he is deep in his slump and Mendoza may have to consider dropping him to a lower spot in the batting order with their season on the line tomorrow.
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