MILWAUKEE — The Mets are officially on life support.
Through three games of the most important road trip of the season, the Mets have gone 0-3 and haven’t led once. They couldn’t hit water from a boat Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Left-hander Jose Quintana pitched effectively, but saw his scoreless innings streak come to an end at 25 2/3 innings as the Mets were shut out in a 6-0 loss at American Family Field.
With the Brewers having already clinched the NL Central, they turned to their bullpen to cover nine innings. Five relievers blanked the Mets, with the Amazins’ managing only two hits. They only had one real chance to score, which came in the fifth inning against Tobias Myers. The right-hander gave up a leadoff double to Starling Marte. The outfielder reached third base on a ground ball out, but the next two hitters went down quickly and quietly.
Myers earned the win in relief, throwing four innings of one-hit ball, striking out five.
Facing left-hander Aaron Ashby in the top of the seventh, Pete Alonso drove one to the warning track with one out, but it came just short of leaving the park, falling into the glove of left fielder Issac Collins for the out.
That was it. That was the most offense the Mets could muster. In the middle of a heated playoff chase with a Wild Card spot on the line, the Mets swung early and often, much to no avail. They barely even put the ball in play.
The Mets bullpen gave them a chance. Phil Maton relieved Quintana with the Mets down 2-0 and in the fifth and a runner on third. He struck out cleanup hitter Willy Adames to strand Jackson Chourio. The right-hander struck out the side in the sixth, one foul ball away from an immaculate inning. Ryne Stanek retired the side in order in the seventh.
But Reed Garrett struggled to contain the Brewers in the eighth. Garrett Mitchell led off with a single and swiped second. It was the ninth stolen base allowed by the Mets through only two games in Milwaukee this weekend, most of which have been consequential.
This one proved to be as well.
Garrett then walked William Contreras and Adames poked a single through the left side to score Mitchell. He struck out Rhys Hoskins before Gary Sanchez blooped a single into shallow center field that shortstop Luisangel Acuña just barely missed. It was shallow enough that Contreras had to hold up at third, but it loaded the bases.
Garrett struck out Isaac Collins, but couldn’t get out of the inning. A bases-loaded walk to Joey Ortiz made it 4-0.
The floodgates were officially open.
Left-hander Danny Young then gave up a two-run single to Andruw Monasterio. The game was out of reach.
Brewers closer Devin Williams converted the save with a scoreless ninth.
Quintana’s scoreless inning streak was snapped in the fourth. He had given up hard contact early in the game but also got a lot of swings and misses, but the Brewers didn’t miss this time. With one out, he put two on with a single and a walk. He struck out Sanchez before walking Collins. Quintana had Ortiz on a 1-2 count before throwing two balls.
With the count full, Ortiz found a hole on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, scoring two.
In a cruel twist, former Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud homered to help the Atlanta Braves walk off over the Kansas City Royals in Atlanta. The Mets (87-72) are now 0.5 games behind the Braves (88-71) in the NL Wild Card standings.