Maybe this is a team of destiny.
Coming off an emotional win in Atlanta, and with all their frequent flyer miles recently, the Mets understandably would’ve been excused if they appeared to be a little fatigued but the trademark of this team is resiliency and it reared it’s “pretty” head in game one of the NL Wild Card series in Milwaukee.
“It’s a playoff game, everybody’s tired but once play ball, you gotta go. It’s gonna be electric, it’s gonna be loud that was the case today and you just gotta feed off that. There’s no excuses,”Mendoza said. “I knew we were in a good spot when we boarded the plane. We celebrated, we got out of the clubhouse in Atlanta and you could tell right away our mentality was next day, next game.”
Twice the Mets came from behind, the second time thanks to a five run, fifth inning rally and they went on to an impressive 8-4 win over the Brewers to put themselves within a win of moving on to a match up with the Phillies in the NLDS.
Francisco Lindor did not need to perform any of his magic in this one, although he did score a big run in the rally. This time, it was Mark Vientos, with an assist from Jose Iglesias, that put the Mets a leg up in this best of three series.
The teams traded leads in the first few innings before the Mets took the lead for good in the fifth.
The Brewers had a 4-3 lead after four, so they went to their strength in the bullpen as Joel Payamps replaced starter Freddy Peralta who wasn’t that sharp.
After Tyrone Taylor doubled with one out, Francisco Alvarez flied out but Lindor walked on five pitches to put two runners on.
Iglesias supplied the turning point when he jumped on Payamps’ first pitch and lined a hot shot to the right side. Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins made a diving stop, but like Edwin Diaz on Monday, Payamps was late in covering first. Iglesias dove into the bag head first and beat Payamps to the bag for an infield hit and Taylor never stopped from second as he scored the tying run.
“I feel like a had a shot to beat the pitcher there, that was huge for us,” the 34-year old Iglesias said.
The Brewers went to the bullpen for left hander Aaron Ashby to face Brandon Nimmo who hit a grounder to the left side. Shortstop Willy Adames slid and made the stop but had no play as the Mets loaded the bases.
Vientos wasted no time as he jumped on Ashby’s first pitch and lined it into right field for a two run single that gave the Mets a 6-4 lead. After Vientos moved to second on a wild pitch, Pete Alonso was intentionally walked to load the bases for a second time.
J.D. Martinez, who was awful in the final weeks of the regular season, kicked it into another gear for playoff time and singled to right to score to more to give the Mets an 8-4 lead.
Luis Severino struggled in the early going but he was able to earn the second post season win of his career as he was able to grind through six innings.
“It was a grind since the first inning,” Severino said. “Feel like I made good pitches, they were getting the ball to good spots. I know we got a good team, I just needed to keep competing.”
The Mets right hander thought he was out of the game after the fourth, but once they got the lead, Severino came out for the fifth and did not allow a ball out of the infield.
Adames popped out to Iglesias at second, Jake Bauers struck out swinging and Rhys Hoskins, who is a Met killer, also popped to second as Severino put up a zero in what needed to be a shut down inning. The right hander then finished it off with another 1-2-3 inning on 13 pitches in the sixth.
“They didn’t chase, he was just missing in the strike zone and they didn’t chase,” Mendoza said. “They forced him in the zone. He grind through it and then he settled in nicely. For him to give us [sic], especially [where] we were at bullpen wise today, it was huge for us.”
From there, the bullpen combo of Jose Butto (2 IP) and Ryne Stanek (1 IP) retired the final nine Milwaukee hitters (Mets pitching retired the last 17 hitters overall) as the Mets stunned the sellout crowd of 40,022 at American Family Field (formerly Miller Park), a place where they have not had a whole lot of success.
Things didn’t start well for Severino and the Mets as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
William Contreras’ RBI single made it 1-0 and Hoskins was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a second run. Severino was able to snuff the rally when he got Sal Frelick on a ground out to second.
As has been their wont this season, the Mets rallied in the ensuing half inning to grab the lead.
Jesse Winker lined a two run triple to the right field corner and scored on a sacrifice fly by Starling Marte as the Mets went up 3-2. The three base hit was Winker’s first in over three years. When he got to third, Winker was trading barbs with Adames, who has been known to be a hot head in the past, but it was just talk and didn’t escalate.
Winker refused to comment on his exchange with Adames but he was pumped up after his big hit. “You’re fired up. That’s what you play the game for. To help a team win a game in the playoffs. So much bigger than yourself. It’s bigger than all of us so there’s a ton of emotions for sure,” he said.
The Brewers regained the lead with two runs in the fourth off Severino.
Frelick led off with a double. With one out, Brice Turang reached on an infield single to short as Frelick stayed at second. Jackson Chourio lined a single to center to score Frelick and he moved to second when Taylor booted the ball as Turang took third.
The Mets played the infield back and Contreras grounded out to short as Turang scored the go ahead run, but once again, the Mets answered in their very next at bat.
The Mets resiliency was on full display in this one considering that in the past week, they have gone from Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to Milwaukee.
“There’s been a bunch of things thrown at this team and just responding,” Winker said. “It’s go time, you’re in the playoffs. There’s no time to really think about the doubleheader. We did our job there and then we popped champagne, then we got on the plane and it was like, alright here we go.”
The Mets will try and end the series later today with Sean Manaea opposing Frankie Montas in a rematch from five days ago.
In that game, Manaea gave up a first inning grand slam to Rhys Hoskins, so the first inning will be key. Lindor was also in his first game back since the injury so he’ll be better prepared this time around.
Montas only pitched four innings and I expect the Brewers to once again have to rely on their bullpen to force a game three on Thursday.