Brewers Bash Three Home Runs, Rout Mets 8-3
Milwaukee put this one away early and often, hitting three home runs and scoring eight runs to hand New York a lopsided 8-3 defeat on July 20. Freddy Peralta took the punishment hardest, surrendering 7 earned runs on 8 hits across 5.1 innings in a start the Mets would rather forget.
The story of the night was how quickly Milwaukee seized control. Brice Turang doubled to right in the first inning to score Chourio, and that single play swung Milwaukee's win probability from 78% to 85% — the biggest single-play shift of the game. Mitchell followed immediately with a single to right, scoring Turang, and just like that the Brewers were up 2-0 before New York had recorded an out in the field. Cooper Pratt put an exclamation point on the first two frames by going deep to center — 393 feet — in the second, pushing the lead to 3-0. New York managed a run in the third when Alvarez scored on a Soto groundout, but any hope of a rally died on the same play when Ewing was thrown out to end the inning. Vaughn answered immediately, launching a 393-foot shot to center that scored Mitchell and made it 5-1. The Mets never got closer than four runs the rest of the way.
The knockout blow came in the sixth. Joey Ortiz drove a 373-foot home run to left that scored both Bauers and Pratt, stretching the lead to 8-1 and effectively ending any competitive drama. Ortiz finished 1-for-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored. Vaughn went 2-for-4 with his homer and 2 RBI, and Pratt was the quieter engine of the offense — 3-for-4 with a homer, an RBI, and 2 runs scored. Garrett Mitchell chipped in 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run. On the pitching side, Jacob Misiorowski opened for Milwaukee and delivered four clean innings — 4 hits, 0 earned runs, 6 strikeouts — before Lance McCullers Jr. handled the next three frames, allowing 2 earned runs on 2 hits with 4 strikeouts. That's a combined seven innings of two-run ball from Milwaukee's pitching staff against a lineup that looks, at least tonight, like it had no answers.
New York's late-game scoring — two runs in the eighth on a Soto groundout and a Polanco single — was cosmetic at best. Bo Bichette went 2-for-3 and scored a run, providing the only real bright spot in an otherwise bleak offensive night for the Mets. Xzavion Curry gave New York 2.2 innings of relief after Peralta's early exit, allowing just 1 earned run, but the damage was long done by then. This one wasn't close, and it appears Milwaukee's lineup is operating at a level New York's pitching staff simply couldn't match on Monday night.