The post-All-Star break winning streak came to an abrupt end on Tuesday night as the Brewers were held to three hits and shut out by Mets rookie starter Zac Thornton. The Mets were able to get a couple of big blasts and won the game 4-0.
Brandon Sproat faced his old team for the first time, and it did not go the way he had planned. After a 28-pitch first inning, Sproat allowed a one-out homer to Jared Young in the second to put the Mets up 1-0. Sproat battled traffic on the bases all night, partially due to four free passes he allowed.
The last of those was a two-out walk to Bo Bichette in the fifth on Sproat’s 99th pitch of the night. At that point, Pat Murphy had seen enough and made the call to the bullpen, something Sproat was upset with himself about.
Francisco Lindor then sneaked a ball off the glove of a diving Brice Turang and got a double out of it to put the Mets in business. Carson Benge then added a two-RBI double through the right side to put the Mets up 3-0.
Meanwhile, the Brewers bats could get absolutely nothing going at the plate. Jackson Chourio led things off with a single in the first inning and William Contreras walked to give the Crew two on and one out. But Andrew Vaughn grounded into a 1-4-3 double play and Thornton retired 12 in a row after that.
Milwaukee then got two runners on and nobody out in the sixth after singles from Cooper Pratt and Joey Ortiz to set up the top of the order. But a strikeout from Chourio and then a baserunning blunder on a passed ball led to Pratt being thrown out heading to third during Turang’s at-bat. Turang hit one to the warning track but came up short and the threat was quickly ended.
They didn’t fare much better against the Mets bullpen and ultimately went down with their first shutout loss since June 3.
Bryse Wilson helped save the bullpen with four innings in relief, though he gave up a lot of traffic with seven hits and allowed a run on a mammoth, 451-foot blast by Luis Robert Jr.
The Brewers may have had some hard-hit balls in this game but couldn’t get them to land. They’ll be back at it for the rubber match tomorrow afternoon with Logan Henderson on the mound against Christian Scott. First pitch in that one is slated for 1:10 p.m.