MILWAUKEE — Leaning on a knee from the top step of the New York Mets dugout, manager Carlos Mendoza kept voicing disapproval toward home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus with every questionable call, and there were plenty.
By the third inning, the misses on balls and strikes piled up, and the Mets’ deficit quickly grew, too. So with a fistful of games left and his team teetering in the wild-card standings, Mendoza earned a warning. An inning later, De Jesus ejected him.
Players who know Mendoza, a first-year manager who doesn’t carry himself like one, described him as the kind of person who’d “be in the fight with the guys.”
The problem Friday night: In the Mets’ 8-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, there wasn’t much of a fight.
While in the hunt for one of the final two playoff spots in the National League, the Mets played one of their worst games of the season. The Mets surrendered six stolen bases, five walks. Also, they coughed up two wild pitches, one passed ball. They made an error. They gave up a grand slam.
Brewers 8, Mets 4: In the hunt for a playoff spot with a few days left, the Mets played one of their worst games of the season. They allowed six stolen bases, five walks. Also: two wild pitches, one passed ball, one error, one grand slam. New York is 87-71.
— Will Sammon (@WillSammon) September 28, 2024
With four games — in three days — left, the Mets (87-71) cling to one of two playoff spots left. They share the same record as the Atlanta Braves. Behind them sits the Arizona Diamondbacks (88-72), whom the Mets own the tiebreaker over. Mathematically, they remain in decent shape. They just didn’t look great.
The Mets lost with more sloppy play.
The Mets lost with Sean Manaea, their best starting pitcher, lasting just 3 2/3 innings in his worst start in at least three months.
And they lost with catcher Francisco Alvarez leaving the game early because of back spasms, though he later deemed himself OK.
At least their star shortstop is back.
After missing the past eight games, Francisco Lindor returned to the lineup. He played the entire game, too, which the Mets deserve some credit for. Facing a five-run deficit in the seventh inning, Lindor chatted with the Mets’ coaching staff about possibly coming out of the game. But the Mets rallied in the eighth inning, forced Milwaukee to use Trevor Megill, one of its best relievers, and convinced the staff to keep Lindor in.
After the game, Lindor echoed the sentiment of Mets officials when he said he was confident he could play the final games, adding, “Thank God, everything went well. My body was responding the way I wanted it to respond.”
He went 2-for-4 with a walk. But in the second inning, he also made an error, allowing outfielder Blake Perkins to reach first base. Soon after, the Mets caught Perkins taking off early from first base on an attempted steal, but Pete Alonso’s throw to second base was too late. Perkins then scored on a double. So it went for the Mets, who also played sloppily in their loss to the Braves on Wednesday, their most recent game.
“They outplayed us today,” Lindor said. “They ran the bases better than we did. They hit better than we did, hit with people in scoring position. I know that the Brewers played better than us today so we tip our cap to them and come back tomorrow and try to beat them.”
The Mets will turn to Jose Quintana on Saturday after Manaea’s dud. Manaea allowed six runs (five earned), seven hits and two walks. It was the first time in his last nine starts that he failed to pitch into the seventh inning. He left a fastball over the middle to Rhys Hoskins, who continued his climb as a top Mets villain with a grand slam in the first inning, but other issues also plagued him. De Jesus’ strike zone lacked both consistency and accuracy. Also, the Brewers ran wild. Again.
Milwaukee racked up a bunch of stolen bases in April, when the two teams met to open the season, and they’ve continued to run well all season. Still, the Mets had improved at controlling the running game. That is, until recently when the Philadelphia Phillies reopened the issue last week, and the Brewers kept pressing on it. Too often, runners gain big leads leading to easy steals.
“This is a good team, this is what they do,” Mendoza said. “We gotta quicken our time to the plate. We have to make some adjustments and stop them from continuing to run like that.”
The Mets can’t be eliminated over the weekend. But losing more games to the Brewers won’t help their cause. And if the Mets do make the playoffs, they may see the Brewers beyond Sunday, when their regular-season series wraps up.
(Photo of Carlos Mendoza: Benny Sieu / Imagn Images)
