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Game Blog

The Milwaukee Brewers just finished up one of the franchise's best months in team history. However, that seemed like decades ago on Wednesday as the New York Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Brewers.

Brewers starting pitcher Dave Bush was 4-0 with a 2.12 ERA in August. The story was much different on Thursday as Bush gave up six runs in the first inning against the Mets. Those runs would be all New York needed as they beat Milwaukee 9-2 at Miller Park.

"Just the six-run first inning, that was kind of it right there," said Brewers manager Ned Yost. "We just couldn't get anything going from that point. Even though you still haven't hit yet, you still have your full complement of 27 outs, it's difficult to battle back from that. It's just one of those days where if you kind of eliminate the first inning, we were right in the game again. But, you can't do that."

Carlos Delgado singled home Daniel Murphy for the first run of the game. Ryan Church came up next with what turned out to be the game-winning hit. Church launched a grand slam into the Mets' bullpen in right field to give New York a 5-0 lead. Brian Schneider added the final run of the inning with a solo homer.

"Dave Bush settled down to the point where not much happened after that," Yost said.

After the disastrous first inning, Bush (9-10) was able to pitch four scoreless innings before being lifted for a pinch hitter. He was charged with the loss to snap his personal four-game winning streak.

These two teams would match up in the first round of the playoffs if the season ended today with Mets being in first place in the NL East and the Brewers leading the Wild Card. After the game, Yost downplayed the fact the Brewers were just swept by a potential October opponent.

"Your focus is day-to-day so it doesn't really matter who you're playing, you're just trying to win a baseball game," Yost said. "You're not trying to make any statements. You're not trying to do anything special besides score more runs than they do at the end of the day and put another win in your column. We didn't learn anything that we didn't know before about the Mets and the Mets didn't learn anything that they didn't know before about us. It was just a series."

Neither team scored again until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Brewers finally scratched a run across against Mets starter Oliver Perez. Corey Hart doubled in Gabe Kapler for that run. J.J. Hardy hit his 21st home run in the next frame for Milwaukee's second and final run of the day. Hardy was the only Brewer with more than one hit as he went 2-3.

Perez picked up his tenth win of the season by throwing 6 2/3 innings while giving up five hits and two runs. He did walk five but struck out five.

The Mets added three runs in the final two innings against Brewers relievers Mitch Stetter and Tim Dillard who were just called up from Triple-A Nashville on Monday.

Milwaukee's homestand continues with a four-game series against San Diego on Thursday. Jeff Suppan (10-7, 4.49) will start for the Brewers against Shawn Estes (1-1, 3.33) for the Padres.

Notes: Three of the Brewers' top prospects made their major league debuts on Wednesday. Catcher Angel Salome, third baseman Mat Gamel and shortstop Alcides Escobar each had one at-bat against the Mets. Escobar picked up a single in his at-bat for his first major league hit. Jose Reyes stole his 47th base of the year in the fourth inning. That stolen base tied the Mets' franchise record (281) held by Mookie Wilson.