Final Score: Brewers 8, Mets 6—Winterfelled

Another night, another poor performance from a Mets starting pitcher, as the Mets drop the first two games of this three game series against the Brewers. Tonight, it was Noah Syndergaard, pitching on his bobblehead night, but that didn’t grant him any extra luck. Early in the game, Syndergaard was the victim of some unlucky soft contact and poor defense, as the first run of the game scored on an errant Pete Alonso throw to second base.

But Syndergaard’s performance can’t be entirely pinned on bad luck, as issues with his location meant he was working with traffic on the bases all evening. A double play helped him out of trouble in the second, but the Brewers scored two additional runs in the third thanks to a walk sandwiched between two base hits.

The Mets clawed back a run in the third on a passed ball—a phenomenon that plagued both sides this evening—that allowed Jeff McNeil to score. But Syndergaard surrendered two solo home runs in the fourth inning to Ben Gamel and Christian Yelich and the Brewers opened up a 5-1 lead. Once again, the Mets starter was chased from the game early and Robert Gsellman came in to start the sixth inning and gave up an additional run on a double by Gamel and a single by Mike Moustakas.

But the Mets almost mounted a comeback. They put up a four-run seventh inning against the Brewers bullpen, thanks to a solo homer from Amed Rosario and a three-run bomb from Pete Alonso to pull within a run. The game would have been tied at that point if Travis d’Arnaud had not tried to stretch a single into a double and been tagged out for the first out of the inning.

Ultimately, d’Arnaud’s mistake didn’t matter, though. Jeurys Familia gave up an additional two runs in the eighth inning, thanks in part to his own poor decision-making in the field. The Mets build another rally in the eighth against Jeremy Jeffress to make the score 8-6, but then Josh Hader neutralized the inning with three straight strikeouts and retired the Mets in order in the ninth to save the game for the Brewers.

Full recap to follow.

GameThread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the GameThread embiggens us all.

1. MetsFan4Decades: 166
2. JR and the Off-Balance Shots: 118
3. Kepler: 105
4. MookieTheCat: 100
5. amazins8669: 86
6. stickguy: 82
7. David Klein: 78
8. elephants gerald: 62
9. Must End The Suffering: 53
10. Allison McCague: 51