Brewers rally for huge 5-3 win over Mets in NL Wild Card Series, force game three on Thursday

Chourio, Mitchell come up with huge homers as bullpen shuts down Mets’ bats

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers fought their way back from an early deficit to take down the Mets in a potential elimination game at American Family Field on Wednesday night, as rookie phenom Jackson Chourio slugged a pair of homers and Garrett Mitchell hit the go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth.

The game started similar to how most of yesterday went — with the Mets picking up hits off soft contact as they managed to move runners around the basepaths.

Francisco Lindor reached on a walk, Jose Iglesias hit a soft grounder that allowed Milwaukee to nab Lindor at second, and Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo followed with back-to-back singles to give New York a 1-0 lead. Frankie Montas worked his way out of the inning as Pete Alonso hit into a double play, which Willy Adames made a nice stop on and turned easily as Alonso tripped over his bat on his way to first base.

Chourio responded immediately with an opposite-field solo homer to lead off the first, tying the game at 1-1. William Contreras picked up a one-out single, but Willy Adames and Gary Sánchez both struck out looking to end the frame.

After Montas struck J.D. Martinez out to begin the second, Starling Marte hit into what should’ve been an easy 3-1 putout but instead turned into an error by Montas, who missed the catch at first. As they did yesterday, the Mets capitalized on the error.

Tyrone Taylor followed with a single to put runners at the corners, and Francisco Alvarez got a single of his own to drive home Marte and move Taylor to third. Lindor hit a sac fly to bring Taylor home, and the Brewers found themselves in a 3-1 hole. Iglesias hit a single of his own, but Montas once again escaped the jam by inducing a flyout from Vientos.

Both Montas and Sean Manaea settled in a bit from there, though the Brewers had runners at first and second with one out in the third. Manaea worked out of it with a strikeout of Contreras and a flyout from Adames.

The Mets tried to tack on another in the fourth as Marte singled and stole second after a replay review overturned the initial out call. Taylor and Alvarez struck out, and reliever Trevor Megill set Lindor down on a flyout to end the threat.

Milwaukee got one back in the fifth, as Brice Turang doubled, Chourio moved him over on a groundout, and Blake Perkins hit a sac fly to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Joel Payamps — coming off a rough Tuesday afternoon — allowed the first two to reach in the sixth, but got a flyout from Taylor, a groundout from Alvarez, and struck out Iglesias to escape the jam.

Phil Maton came on for the Mets in the eighth and Chourio hit another opposite-field leadoff homer, tying the game up at 3-3. Chourio’s homer made him the first Brewer to ever hit multiple homers in the same postseason game and also made him just the second player in MLB history to hit two game-tying homers in the same game in the postseason, joining Babe Ruth in the 1928 World Series.

After Perkins singled, Contreras hit into a double play to wipe out the runner with no outs. Adames followed with a single of his own, and Mitchell hit the game-changing drive, slugging a homer off the top of the wall in right-center for the 5-3 lead.

Devin Williams got the ninth looking to shut it down and did just that, setting Lindor, Iglesias, and pinch-hitting Brewers villain Jesse Winker on consecutive flyouts to end the game and send this series to a winner-take-all game three on Thursday night.

Chourio had the big night with his two homers, but eight Brewers picked up a hit, as Chourio, Perkins, and Turang each had two hits on the night. The Brewers didn’t draw any walks but they managed to make contact most of the night, striking out just five times as a team.

Not to be overshadowed, the Brewers’ bullpen went 5 ¹⁄₃ scoreless in relief of Montas, as Megill, Payamps, Jared Koenig, Joe Ross, and Williams allowed just two hits and three walks with four strikeouts to close out the game.

First pitch on Thursday will either be at 2:08 p.m. on ABC or at 6:08 p.m. on ESPN. If the Braves win tonight’s Braves-Padres game (Padres currently lead 5-2 in the seventh), Milwaukee will play at 2:08, but if the Padres win, the Brewers will have the nightcap as the only series to go to a game three in the opening round. Tobias Myers is the scheduled starter for Milwaukee with the Mets set to send Jose Quintana out to the bump.