With Sunday’s game serving as both the season finale and Mike Piazza’s induction into the Mets Hall of Fame — and possibly the night Terry Collins gets his reported two-year contract extension as well — it’s easy to see why Saturday’s second-to-last game had a playing-out-the-string vibe to it.
The Mets’ 4-2, 10-inning loss to the Brewers at Citi Field did guarantee their 2014 draft pick will be in the top 10 and protected, which means they can sign a free agent — such as outfielder Shin-Soo Choo — without forfeiting it.
But that was the only good news for the Mets on a day the 29,326 in attendance at Citi Field seemed muted, even when the Brewers won it late.
Milwaukee’s rally in the 10th inning started with a walk to pinch-hitter Caleb Gindl, who then took third on Jonathan Lucroy’s broken-bat single up the middle. Scott Atchison (3-3) then surrendered former Mets Carlos Gomez’s RBI single to right that scored Gindl with the eventual winner. Yuniesky Betancourt singled to right to score Lucroy, giving the Brewers an added insurance run they wouldn’t need.
Mets starter Aaron Harang (six innings, five hits, one run) matched Jimmy Nelson pitch-for-pitch, with Daniel Murphy’s fourth-inning RBI sacrifice fly canceling out Gomez’s towering solo shot in the top of the frame.
The Mets squandered a bases-loaded nobody-out rally in the seventh, after Eric Young Jr. flying out to center, Lucas Duda popping up to third and David Wright grounding into a force at third to end the threat. But when the Brewers loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, they made it count.
After Vic Black issued a one-out walk to Lucroy and saw Gomez bloop a one-out single to right, Scooter Gennett’s single loaded the bases. Betancourt lifted a sacrifice fly to left that scored Lucroy with a go-ahead run.
The Mets rallied to tie the game with a run off reliever Donovan Hand in the ninth. Young laced a single just past Betancourt to score Matt den Dekker and send Andrew Brown to third. Young took second on the throw, and Hand hit Lucas Duda to load the bases for Wright. But the Mets captain hit into a double play sent it into extra innings, and Milwaukee won it in the 10th.
Hand (1-5) got the win for the Brewers.