NEW YORK — Even with a lead, it felt inevitable.
Justin Verlander danced in and out of trouble, his pitch count sometimes feeling like a more pressing concern than the number of Brewers who managed to get on base. The bullpen door was forced to swing open earlier than ideal and, within minutes, Drew Smith was looking toward the centerfield wall, and Brandon Nimmo was letting out an exasperated sigh.
The Mets: poisoned by their pen again. And, unlike their Sunday disaster against the Phillies, this time, their offense did little to shoulder the burden.
A day after a duo of rookies coughed up an eighth-inning lead, the Mets were again victimized by their relievers. This time, it was Smith, newly reinstated from his 10-game sticky stuff suspension, to cough up a lead via a go-ahead, two-run homer to Joey Wiemer in the sixth inning of the Mets’ 2-1 loss to the generally toothless Brewers Monday.
Smith has a 8.71 ERA in his last 12 appearances and struggled with both slider and fastball location. He got away with a hanging slider on his first pitch to Wiemer. The homer was on a 96.3-mph fastball right down the middle of the strike zone. It doesn’t help that, even at a 1-0 lead, the game was winnable — the Brewers have the lowest OPS in the National League, and have scored the fewest road runs in the NL, to boot. The Mets, well on the brink of irrelevancy before the All-Star break, have now dropped seven of their last nine, and look utterly lifeless — even as Verlander gritted his way through a stressful but scoreless five-inning performance.
They managed just three hits against Colin Rea and didn’t have a baserunner for the final 3 2/3 innings.
Things don’t look to be getting any better, either. They’ll have to tap David Peterson for a start Tuesday, despite Peterson’s well-documented struggles. He posted an 8.08 ERA in eight starts this season and has a 6.00 ERA in Triple-A Syracuse, with opposing hitters batting .292 with an .883 OPS over five starts. With Jose Quintana (rib) potentially needing two more rehab appearances to get built up, it’s equally possible that Peterson’s stay in Flushing is somewhat extended: two starts, or even three.
Startling Marte led off with a single and, with Francisco Lindor at the plate, stole second. The throw to the base skittered away, though, and Marte made it to third and even contemplated trying to score when Weimer’s throw went way over Luis Urias’ head (the ball ricocheted off the visiting dugout and back toward William Contreras at home too quickly). Lindor, though, hit a deep sacrifice fly to right for his 53rd RBI of the year, giving the Mets the unconventional 1-0 lead.
The Brewers repeatedly threatened against Verlander but failed to break through.
They loaded the bases with one out in the first before Owen Miller grounded into a force at the plate and Weimer grounded out to first. Verlander was already up to 47 pitches over the first two innings, stranding five at that time.
The Brewers put two more on with one out in the fourth, but Francisco Alvarez picked off a roaming Blake Perkins at first to help quash the threat. Verlander let the first two batters reach in the fifth, too, but induced two fly outs and got Owen Miller to strike out swinging on a 2-and-2 curveball.
Verlander allowed five hits, striking out five, hitting one batter and walking two as the Brewers left eight men on base against him and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. He threw 100 pitches, 59 for strikes and ceded the sixth to Smith.
Smith immediately let up a single to Jesse Winker and, two batters later, Wiemer blasted a 96-mph fastball down the heart of the plate, 422-feet to straightaway center to give them the 2-1 lead.
