Mets beat Brewers, head to Atlanta for doubleheader Monday needing one win to reach playoffs
Mets' Francisco Lindor hits an RBI single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Aaron Gash
MILWAUKEE — Six months into a six-month season, the Mets are down to one more day to determine their playoff fate.
They beat the Brewers, 5-0, on Sunday afternoon but did not clinch a playoff spot because the Diamondbacks blew out the Padres, 11-2.
That means the Mets still have to go to Atlanta for a doubleheader Monday. Both are makeups of rained out contests last week. Atlanta fell to the Royals on Sunday, 4-2.
If the Mets win once Monday, they will win an NL wild-card spot.
Key to the Mets’ effort Sunday — and, in a ripple effects way, Monday — was lefthander David Peterson, who tossed seven shutout innings to lower his ERA to 2.90. He allowed one hit and three walks and struck out eight.
Peterson wobbled early, including when two of the first three batters reached base (on an infield single and walk). But he settled in quickly, retiring 16 of his final 17 batters beginning in the second inning.
The length provided by Peterson allowed manager Carlos Mendoza to stick to just two relievers: Phil Maton and Edwin Diaz. That sets the Mets up reasonably well for a potentially long day Monday.
The Mets scored five runs in 5 1/3 innings against Milwaukee righthander Colin Rea. The man in the middle of it all: Francisco Lindor, who finished 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs, two runs and two steals.
Lindor sparked the Mets’ rally in the first inning by working a leadoff walk, stealing second on the next pitch and scoring from second on Brandon Nimmo’s single to center. He was slow to get up after diving head-first into home.
Lindor plated the second of two runs in the fourth with a line-drive single to right. That sequence opened with J.D. Martinez bouncing a double off the third-base bag, his first hit in 20 days, snapping an 0-for-36 skid.
Lindor added a solo homer in the sixth. It was his 32nd long ball of the year.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
