The New York Mets have been running on fumes over the last week, but their offense still managed to stay hot on Tuesday.
New York secured an 8-4 victory to take a 1-0 lead in their wild-card Series matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers and are now one win away from meeting its National League East rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, in the NLDS. Here are three takeaways from the Mets’ win:
Mets continue to show their resilience
Despite playing in their sixth game in five days (and third game in two days), the Mets lineup showed no signs of fatigue during Tuesday’s win over Milwaukee. Just like in the team’s thrilling win in the opening game of Monday’s doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, New York showed resiliency by trading blows with the opposition and scoring in bunches.
After right-hander Luis Severino allowed two first-inning runs, the Mets strung together four quality at-bats, including a two-run triple by DH Jesse Winker and a sacrifice fly from outfielder Starling Marte, to take a 3-2 lead.
The Brewers reclaimed the lead — and momentum — in the fourth inning, thanks to a Jackson Chourio RBI double and a William Contreras RBI groundout. However, after Brewers manager Pat Murphy turned to his bullpen in the top of the fifth inning, the Mets quickly pounced.
New York scored five runs on five hits, sending 11 batters to the plate, its most productive playoff inning since Game 4 of the 2006 NLCS, as pointed out by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.
Ultimately, the Mets’ fifth-inning scoring outburst proved to be the deciding factor in this matchup, as neither New York nor Milwaukee scored a run for the remainder of the game.
Although pitching is undoubtedly crucial in the postseason, having a deep lineup with the confidence to battle back from any deficit like New York’s can also swing the outcome of a series, especially in a three-game set.
Brewers’ Pat Murphy loses chess match between first-year managers
It was a rough postseason debut for Murphy, who did the Mets plenty of favors on Tuesday.
As mentioned, the 65-year-old turned to his bullpen early, pulling starter Freddy Peralta after four innings. While Peralta allowed three runs, the Brewers ace only threw 68 pitches before being removed and responded to his second-inning flare-up by retiring the last nine batters he faced.
Murphy made another costly mistake during the Mets’ fifth-inning explosion. After New York took a 6-4 lead, Murphy opted to intentionally walk first baseman Pete Alonso, even though two men were already on base and there were two outs in the inning.
Alonso may be one of the more dangerous power hitters in baseball, but he’s amidst the worst offensive year of his career and only hit .232 with runners in scoring position during the regular season. The Brewers should’ve pitched to him.
Meanwhile, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza continued to press all the right buttons for his team, sending a struggling J.D. Martinez to the plate to pinch-hit for Winker. The veteran slugger Martinez promptly hit a two-run single to extend New York’s lead to 8-4.
