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MILWAUKEE — About 36 hours after escaping a natural disaster in the south, the Mets authored a self-made debacle, imploding minutes into a crucial game with ace Sean Manaea on the mound. The Mets still control their own destiny even after losing the series opener here, although that isn’t necessarily much of a blessing considering how they’re playing in their biggest trip of the season.
The current scorecard on the excursion that will decide this season reads like this: Braves one win, Brewers one win, Hurricane Helene two rainouts, Mets two no-show games.
This certainly was not the time for one of the worst performances of the season but that’s exactly what this was. There was almost zero encouraging happening.
Manaea looked nothing like himself and the Mets lineup scraped together not nearly enough against Yankees washout Frankie Montas and Co. What’s more, Mets star Francisco Lindor, playing his first full game in two weeks, doesn’t look 100 percent no matter what anyone says. He appeared to be just toughing it out.
Adding insult to injury, noted Mets tormentor Rhys Hoskins played the villain again, smashing a grand slam in the first inning in the Mets’ 8-4 defeat. Not that anyone can choose their conquerors, but Hoskins already was reviled inside the Mets clubhouse.
This Hoskins hate started when he was back in Philly, but he killed the Mets in the first week this season when he won a game with his hitting heroics after upsetting Jeff McNeil (remember him?) with a hard slide into second base. Then, six months later, he took a dagger to them to start this final weekend of the season. His two out, two-strike homer to left basically decided things 20 minutes in.
The Mets still have two games here, and a chance. But they need to pick it up.
Give the upstart Brewers from arguably MLB’s smallest market (Milwaukee and Cincinnati have been claiming that title for years) ample credit. They field, they run the bases (they stole at will Friday), and they win, which is how they locked up the No. 3 seed and the home field for their wild-card series — whether they play the Mets or someone else.
The game bordered on inconsequential for Milwaukee, yet they started their ‘A’ lineup and played close to their ‘A’ game. Good for them. But bad for the Mets.
As for the team from Queens, this effort was a nearly total fail. Playing in a contest they “had to win” (manager Carlos Mendoza’s words) following their escape from Atlanta, they never gave themselves a chance.
However, I can’t say they didn’t show fire. Mendoza was booted for going nuts on home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus after De Jesus called Francisco Alvarez out on a pitch that appeared below the strike zone with two out and two out in the fourth. That was after Alvarez — who left later with back spasms — hopped around and slammed down his helmet.
There’s reason to scream. The finishing schedule that looked arduous got much worse once the likelihood of a flight south and finish Monday back in Atlanta to make up the two washed-out games came into play.
Even if the Mets survive OK this weekend, their pitching depth is going to be severely tested with the prospect of two games Monday before starting a potential playoff series Tuesday. That matchup, should the Mets be lucky enough to beat out the Braves or Diamondbacks, could occur back here next week. And if it does, the little team from this nice Midwestern burg will hold almost all the advantages.
That’s not only because the Mets’ decent depth of arms will be sorely depleted by then but also because, frankly, the Brewers look like the better team. Those little things they do can add up, can’t they?
As if the Mets didn’t have enough to worry about, the former MVP candidate Lindor didn’t really resemble himself. He did leg out one hit but struck out on an uncharacteristically weak swing and he made a rare throwing error as he played through his back condition. While both he and team personnel kept saying he was fine, he didn’t look it.
They whole team doesn’t look like exactly right either. But while this trip is nothing short of disastrous to date, remarkably, their circumstances still aren’t quite dire. They only need to beat out one of the Braves or Diamondbacks, who have similar records and other flaws. The Braves can pitch but they can’t hit. The D’backs are the opposite: good hitters but suspect pitchers.
At the moment the Mets don’t look like they can do much of anything. But as we know, things can change in a hurry. The Mets came back from an 0-5 start and 11 games under .500 to put themselves in position to possibly play in the playoffs. But they are back to their earlier type games at the worst time, and they simply can’t play like they did Friday if they expect to get there where they want to go.
