Reliever Phil Maton was bombarded in the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing a solo home run to Jackson Chourio and a two-run shot to Garrett Mitchell, allowing the Milwaukee Brewers to come back and defeat the New York Mets 5-3 in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series on Wednesday night.
Chourio hit two solo home runs to help keep the Brewers’ season alive as the best-of-three series comes down to a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday night at American Family Field.
Maton’s stumble was the first runs allowed by the Mets bullpen in the series after going three clean innings during Monday night’s Game 1 win and an additional two in Game 2 via Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek.
Milwaukee’s comeback win was the first time since Game 4 of the 1982 World Series that they came back to win a game in which they were trailing in the seventh inning.
The Mets will be left to rue their inability to convert in big spots, going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position while leaving nine left on base.
New York scored all three of its three runs in the first two innings to take an early two-run advantage. Brandon Nimmo struck first in the top of the first with an RBI single to score Jose Iglesias from second. With runners on the corners and one out, Pete Alonso fumbled early New York momentum away when he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
His grounder deep in the hole to Willy Adames could have been beaten out, but the slugger tripped over his bat while running down the first-base line.
Chourio, the first batter Mets starter Sean Manaea faced, tied the game up in the bottom of the first, becoming the youngest player in MLB history at 20 years, 205 days old to hit a lead-off home run in the postseason.
But a mistake from Brewers starting pitcher Frankie Montas helped the Mets put up a pair in the second inning to cancel out Chourio’s historic round-tripper.
After JD Martinez struck out to lead off the inning, Montas got Starling Marte to ground out to first. The pitcher ran to the bag and beat Marte comfortably, but he dropped the throw from first baseman Rhys Hoskins, allowing the Met to reach base.
Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Alvarez hit back-to-back singles to score Marte and put runners at the corners for Francisco Lindor, whose sacrifice fly made it 3-1.
The Brewers pulled one back in the fifth after Brice Turang, who continued his strong showing in the series, led off with a double. He would come in to score on a Blake Perkins sacrifice fly.
Manaea would go no further, ending his outing with two earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
New York rallied in the sixth after Martinez walked and Marte singled. With two outs in the frame, Brewers manager Phil Murphy opted to intentionally walk Lindor for Jose Iglesias. The move worked as reliever Joel Payamps struck him out.
Former Yankee and Met Gary Sanchez’s one-out infield single put the Brewers in business in the bottom of the sixth off Mets reliever Reed Garrett, but solid Mets defense snuffed it out when Alvarez threw out pinch-runner Garrett Mitchell at second for the second out of the inning.
One pitch later, Garrett struck out Rhys Hoskins to keep the Mets ahead going into the seventh.
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