Brewers on brink of another early playoff exit

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers blew another lead in a playoff game, and now they’re on the verge of another early postseason exit.

Milwaukee gave up five runs with two outs in the fifth inning and lost 8-4 to the New York Mets in the opener of an NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday. The Brewers must win two straight to keep their season alive and advance to a Division Series at Philadelphia.

“Like we’ve said all year, we’re undaunted,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “We’re going to come out tomorrow and give 100% out there on the field.”

The Brewers are making their sixth playoff appearance in seven years, but they haven’t won a postseason series since 2018, when they were one win from the World Series before losing at home to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. Starting with that defeat, the Brewers have lost 10 of their last 11 playoff games.

Before this series, Adames and pitcher Freddy Peralta spoke about how this year’s team had a different feeling to it, and how they believed that could lead to a more successful postseason.

Yet the Brewers opened the playoffs with a performance that felt all too familiar. They've led by multiple runs in each of their last four postseason games, only to lose them all.

After blowing an early 2-0 lead Tuesday, Milwaukee pulled back ahead 4-3 by scoring twice in the fourth inning.

That’s when everything changed.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy removed Freddy Peralta, who had allowed three runs in the second but recovered to retire his last nine batters. The Mets proceeded to score five runs in the fifth against relievers Joel Payamps and Aaron Ashby.

“I don’t understand the reason I was taken out of the game, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” said Peralta, who threw 68 pitches.

Murphy gave his reasons during the postgame news conference.

“It had been an emotional (68) pitches,” Murphy said. “What’s he got, 20 left? He’s usually between 83 and 90 (pitches), is when he kind of loses a little bit on his fastball. I didn’t want (him) to face those guys three times around.”

Milwaukee ranked second in the majors with a 3.11 bullpen ERA in the regular season. Payamps had gone 12 straight appearances since he last allowed a run, back on Aug. 27. Ashby had given up just three runs over 19 2/3 innings since getting called up in late August.

Payamps nearly got out of that fifth inning without allowing a single run.

The Mets still trailed 4-3 but had runners at first and second when Jose Iglesias hit a hard grounder to first baseman Rhys Hoskins. Payamps was late getting to first, Iglesias’ headfirst slide beat him to the bag, and Tyrone Taylor came all the way home from second to score the tying run.

“That’s a routine play that I failed to execute,” Payamps said through a translator. “Things kind of spiraled from there.”

Ashby came on for Payamps at that point, and didn’t retire any of the five batters he faced as the Mets built their 8-4 lead.

“He still had his good velo, but he didn’t have his good sink,” Murphy said. “He didn’t have his good movement on him.”

That was it for the Brewers. After stranding six runners through the first four innings, they didn’t put anyone on base the rest of the game.

“That big inning takes the wind out of your sails,” Murphy said, noting no runs were scored by either team afterward. “Really, it was emotional for both teams.”

The twist is, the Brewers’ season ended last year when they arguably left Peralta in a game too long.

Milwaukee built a 2-0 lead that night as Peralta held Arizona hitless before allowing a homer to Alek Thomas with two outs in the fifth. Peralta then gave up a walk, a double and a two-run single to open the sixth inning.

By the time he departed, the Brewers trailed 3-2. They ended up losing 5-2 and ended Craig Counsell’s managerial tenure in Milwaukee by getting swept in the NL Wild Card Series.

Now they must try to avoid getting swept in this round for a second straight year.

“We’ve got to win or we go home,” Adames said. “The mentality is we’ve got to win, no matter what.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB