Game #124: Brewers 6, Mets 1

Milwaukee's Prince Fielder tags out Mets catcher Josh Thole in the Brewers' 6-1 victory. (NYDailyNews.com)

The rain gave its best effort to keep this game from being played, but all it did was delay the inevitable for 2 hours and 46 minutes.

The Brewers broke it open with 5 runs in the span of 2 innings and Shaun Marcum kept New York from doing anything at the plate, as the Mets fell to the red-hot Brewers, 6-1.

The Bad Stuff:

• There were bad omens as early as the 1st inning. After getting the first two outs, David Wright committed a fielding error, allowing Ryan Braun to get to first and eventually second after a steal. Prince Fielder then followed with an RBI single to make it 1-0.
• Nothing much happened until the 5th inning, when I'll bet Mike Pelfrey wished he could have slid down into the muddy mound and disappeared from the world. A double, a sac bunt, walk, another Fielder single (giving him 92 RBIs for the year), a single, and a double put 3 more Milwaukee runs on the board and, considering the scoring-challenged Met offense, pretty much put the game away.
• DJ Carrasco didn't do much better in the 6th, letting 2 more runs cross the plate after a double, intentional walk, single, and wild pitch.
• The New York bats were no match for Shaun Marcum, who gave up a lone run on 6 hits in 7 innings. Kameron Loe and Frankie de la Cruz came in to slam the door in the 8th and 9th, giving the Mets their 13th loss in 18 games (hmm, 5-13...sound familiar?).

The Good Stuff:

• Angel Pagan did his best to get the plane off the ground, going 3-4 with 2 doubles. Ruben Tejada had 2 hits as well and Josh Thole drove in the team's only run in the 7th.
• Tim Byrdak and Ryota Igarashi kept things from getting way ugly, keeping the Brew Crew off the board in the 7th and 8th.

Final Analysis:
When an unstoppable force meets a very movable object, you get what you saw tonight at Citi Field. The Milwaukee Brewers continue their buzzsaw of a run to the playoffs, now winners of 20 of their last 23, while the Mets continue their downward spiral to oblivion. The question for both teams remains when will they hit their respective hard, flat surfaces: in the Brewers' case that would be the ceiling; for the Mets, it's the cold hard floor. For the sake of these 25 guys fighting for next year, one hopes the floor isn't too much further down.

MM