NEW YORK — The Mets on Wednesday were hoping to build off an impressive victory over Milwaukee from Tuesday night.
Owner Steve Cohen, in a rare pregame news conference, said: “We played great [Tuesday] night. That was a crisp game. Probably one of the best games we’ve played all year. And so we know it’s possible, right?”
The Mets did not follow up Cohen’s praise with another “best game.” They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, Buck Showalter got ejected after a highly questionable call, and the Mets lost to Milwaukee, 5-2, before 28,440 at Citi Field.
Showalter was tossed by first-base umpire Ron Kulpa in the top of the eighth after a two-out, two-run single by Christian Yelich gave the Brewers importance insurance runs. But it wasn’t the single that earned Showalter’s ire.
The batter before, Joey Wiemer, had been hit by an Adam Ottavino pitch to load the bases. But Wiemer appeared to swing, which would have negated the hit by pitch.
Plate umpire Carlos Torres ruled it a hit by pitch, however, and crew chief Kulpa did not rule from first base that Wiemer had swung. Checked swings are not reviewable under instant replay.
The Brewers had taken a 3-2 lead in the sixth on Blake Perkins’ RBI single off rookie Grant Hartwig (0-1), who replaced Kodai Senga to start the inning. It took Senga 102 pitches to get through five.
The Mets, after falling behind 2-0 in the first on Jesse Winker’s two-run double off Senga, tied the game on Tommy Pham’s 404-foot solo homer off facing of the second deck in left against lefthander Wade Miley in the second and a no-outs, bases-loaded walk to Francisco Alvarez in the fourth.
But Miley recovered to strike out Brett Baty and got Mark Canha to ground into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Just list that, a golden opportunity squandered, which is something the Mets did not do when they hit four home runs in Tuesday’s 7-2 victory.
Senga’s second start on normal rest went much better than his first.
In his first start on four days’ rest, on June 4 vs. Toronto, Senga lasted just 2 2/3 innings and gave up four runs (three earned) in a 6-4 Mets defeat. In Japan, Senga started once a week, as all starters do in that country.
The Brewers made Senga work – he threw 71 pitches in the first three innings – but he got out of a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the third by striking out Brian Anderson.
Senga, who allowed two runs, five hits, walked two, hit a batter and struck out eight, picked up his 100th strikeout when he caught Wiemer looking for the second out of the fourth.
Senga’s start was in line with much of his 2023 work in his first Mets season. He pitches effectively (3.53 overall ERA), but he doesn’t get deep into games because he doesn’t always find the strike zone.
Senga threw 59 strikes and 43 balls. Of the 22 batters he faced, Senga only threw a first-pitch strike to 11.
Senga was more efficient in his final two innings, retiring six of seven batters. The fifth was his only 1-2-3 inning of the night.
Mound matters
David Peterson, who threw six shutout innings in his return from Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, has earned another start. Showalter said Peterson will face the Giants on Sunday night Peterson said after Tuesday night’s win: “When I got sent down, I had some things to figure out.”. . . Jose Quintana will make his final minor-league rehab start on Friday for Syracuse. Cohen made the announcement that Quintana will make his Mets debut “next week” if all goes well. Quintana has been out since breaking a rib in spring training.
