It was getaway day in Milwaukee and the Mets decided to pack their bats first and send them ahead of the team to Oakland, as they suffered a rare shutout, 6-0, to the Brewers on Wednesday, as they failed to complete the sweep of the three-game series.
The bad news started early in this game, as Brandon Nimmo left the game in the bottom of the first with tightness in his left quad. The hope is that they got the injury early and he’ll only miss a couple of games.
Taijuan Walker got off to a strong start, as he hurled five scoreless innings with a low pitch count. However, he gave up a solo homer in the sixth and the wheels came off in the seventh.
Buck Showalter didn’t do the best managing with his relievers but in fairness he had one hand tied behind his back with Mychal Givens out and the rest of his “A” relievers either not available or it being too early to use Edwin Diaz.
Showalter brought in David Peterson mid inning, which is tough for any reliever and really difficult for a starter trying to adapt to relieving on the fly. Peterson did ok but Showalter pulled him with the bases loaded to bring in Drew Smith for his first appearance since returning from the IL. Smith got ahead 0-2 but then served up a gopher ball to put the game out of reach.
The Mets managed just four hits in the game. Mark Canha, who replaced Nimmo in the game, got hit by a pitch twice, which can’t be that easy for a guy who didn’t start. The Mets now have the MLB record for most times getting hit by a pitch with 106. Buck Showalter got the ball to commemorate the record.
You know it’s bad when the highlight of the game came from Steve Gelbs. The annoying sideline reporter ran as the Polish Sausage in the Brewers’ daily sausage race and came on with a late kick to finish first. Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez spent the rest of the game talking about how big Gelbs’ head would be after winning the race.
Easy to forget the Brewers have a good team but no excuse for not even getting good swings out there. It was the kind of day where the Mets could have picked up a game on the Braves who miraculously lost. The Phillies did us a solid last night finally remembering that they are in a wild card race. Some home Philadelphia cooking was great and hope they continue it. Bassitt, deGrom and Max take on the A’s and we could not have the rotation any stronger for this swing out west, where we don’t particularly play them strong. Need them to unpack those bats and come out strong. 1.5 game lead feels good,but let’s build on it tonight. LGM