Mets go down quietly in 2-1 loss to Brewers as struggles continue

Give the Mets credit for this if nothing else: after a seemingly endless string of weird, painful losses, tonight’s loss wasn’t really that. Tonight’s loss was... just rather boring, really. Nevertheless, it was another loss for a team that continues to be unable to manage even the smallest amount of positive momentum. Tonight, it was the Brewers who pushed the Mets further down into the standings—not by beating down their beleaguered pitching staff, but by silencing the beleaguered offense. The result was a 2-1 defeat—their 16th in the past 21 games.

Justin Verlander made his tenth start of the season for the Mets. It’s been a lukewarm beginning to the future Hall of Famer’s tenure in New York, and he once again pitched himself into a lot of trouble tonight. He allowed at least two baserunners in four of the five innings he ended up pitching, and it would have been very easy for him to completely fall apart on any time during this outing. Still, to his credit, he managed to keep the Brewers off the board, and while the Mets undoubtedly would have liked for him to have gone deeper into the game, his final line—5 innings, 5 hits, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 0 runs—was respectable and gave the team a chance to get an elusive win.

Meanwhile, the Mets struggled to get much of anything going against Brewers starting pitcher Colin Rea, who held the offense hitless through the first three innings. Starling Marte ended the no-no effort with a leadoff single up the middle in the fourth, and he proceeded to use his legs to get the Mets on the board, as he quickly swiped second base and then went to third when the ball skipped into the outfield. Fransisco Lindor then hit a deep fly ball to right field to bring Marte home, and the Mets had a much-needed 1-0 lead.

The lead did not last, though. Once Verlander was done after five innings, he was replaced in the game by Drew Smith, making his first appearance after being suspended for ten games for using sticky stuff. Alas, Smith’s return was far from a triumphant one, as Jesse Winker singled to lead off the inning and then, with two outs in the frame, Joey Wiemer socked a long two-run homer to center field to give the Brewers a 2-1 lead. It was quite a let-down, and yet—given how things have gone for the Mets in recent times—felt fairly inevitable.

And... well, there’s not much else to talk about, really. Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley, and David Robertson each tossed scoreless innings (hey, funny how Buck Showalter saw fit to use his best relievers in this one!), but the Mets’ bats didn’t do anything to even threaten to get back into the game. Rea ended up lasting 6.1 innings and gave up just three hits, and the Brewers bullpen proceeded to retire every single batter they faced. Again—it was another disappointing loss, but at least it was a boring one. Now the Mets will turn to David Peterson to snap their losing streak tomorrow night. May God have mercy on us all.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Brew Crew Ball

Box scores

MLB.com
ESPN

Win Probability Added

FanGraphs

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Justin Verlander, +26.8% WPA
Big Mets loser: Drew Smith, -30.8% WPA
Mets pitchers: +8.2% WPA
Mets hitters: -58.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Starling Marte stolen base/advancing to third on error in the fourth, +8.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Joey Wiemer two-run homer in the sixth, -35.9% WPA