MILWAUKEE — Garrett Mitchell lined a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning and rookie Jackson Chourio homered twice as the Milwaukee Brewers rallied for a 5-3 victory over the New York Mets on Wednesday to even their National League wild-card series at one win apiece.
The Brewers will host the deciding game of the best-of-three series on Thursday.
Chourio, who went deep in the first inning, opened the eighth with a 398-foot solo homer to right-center off Phil Maton (0-1) to tie it 3-3. Willy Adames singled with two outs, and Mitchell then lined the next pitch over the wall in center.
Devin Williams, who converted 14 of 15 save chances during the regular season, preserved the win with a perfect ninth. Joe Ross (1-0) got the victory with 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
“Again, you saw what our team’s about, what they’ve been about all year,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “A lot of contributors, a lot of guys gave us what they had. They didn’t quit.”
The sixth-seeded Mets, who did not secure a postseason berth until winning the first game of a makeup doubleheader at Atlanta on Monday, scored two unearned runs in the second to go up 3-1. Milwaukee pulled within 3-2 in the fifth.
Milwaukee had lost six consecutive postseason games and was 1-10 in playoff games beginning with a defeat in Game 7 of the 2018 NL Championship Series to the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers.
New York capitalized on a Brewers error in the second inning. Starling Marte reached on a one-out grounder when pitcher Frankie Montas dropped the routine toss from first baseman Rhys Hoskins while covering the bag. Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Alvarez followed with back-to-back singles to score Marte. Francisco Lindor added a sacrifice fly.
Montas lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits. He struck out three and walked one.
Mets starter Sean Manaea allowed two runs on six hits and no walks in five innings. He fanned four.
The Brewers cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fifth when Brice Turang sliced an opposite-field double down the left field line, advanced on a groundout and scored on Blake Perkins’ sacrifice fly.
The Mets loaded the bases in the sixth on a walk, a single and a two-out intentional walk to Lindor, but Joel Payamps escaped by striking out Jose Iglesias.
New York took a 1-0 lead in the first when Lindor walked, Iglesias reached on a fielder’s choice and Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo followed with consecutive singles.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said, looking ahead to Game 3, “We’ve shown it the whole year. We’ve been knocked down and we have the ability to get back up. And here we are. We got punched today, we’ll get right back. They’re a good ballclub, man, they’re a good team. But, we’ll be ready to go.”
–Jim Hoehn, Field Level Media
