Alonso ties Straw, but can't save Mets from a nightmare 7th and a 6th straight loss

Brewers 7 Mets 4 (American Family Field, Milwaukee, WI)

Mets record: 63-54

Mets streak: Lost 6

WP - Jared Koenig (4-1)

LP - Ryne Stanek (2-6)

SV - Trevor Megill (28)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

It took a little bit, but Pete Alonso's 252nd career home run tied him with Darryl Strawberry for the all time club lead.

He deserves the shine for it. I truly believe that even after a game like the one that the Mets played tonight, Alonso would be sitting next to Ralph having a career retrospective of sorts. But Pete swapping stories with Ralph couldn't save the Mets, as they had a chance to show off their brand new bullpenbut it melted down in a 7-4 Mets loss.

Need to Know

• Pete Alonso's 2nd inning home run tied him with Darryl Strawberry for the all time franchise lead with 252. Pete hit number 252 in his 963rd career game, while it took 1,106 games as a Met for Straw to hit his 252nd home run as a Met.

• The record was previously held by Dave Kingman and, before him, Ed Kranepool.

• With the loss and the Phillies win in Arlington (this time against Jacob deGrom), the Mets are now 4.5 games back in the National League East. And with the Reds win, the Mets drop to 2.5 games ahead in the final wild card spot.

• The Mets have lost 10 of their last 11, and are now 18-30 in their last 48 games.

• The Mets are now 4-20 in their last 24 regular season games in Milwaukee.

• Reed Garrett made his first career start tonight as the opener. The last time he started as a professional was his 4 starts with the Frisco Roughriders in 2017.

• Frankie Montas was the bulk guy, but he only lasted three innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on three hits and two walks. He gave up a solo HR to Brice Turang, who hit his second homer in as many days against the Mets.

• Brandon Nimmo's three K's on the night gives him 26 strikeouts in his previous 56 at-bats.

• Juan Soto and Starling Marte added runs on solo home runs, and Cedric Mullins drove in the other run with a single.

Turning Point

How about the entire 7th inning?

Ryne Stanek gave up a bloop ground rule double to Joey Ortiz to put runners on second and third, and then Sal Frelick grounded out to Francisco Lindor to drive home the tying run. Then, the Mets had two chances to get out of the inning. First on a ground ball *ruled a single* to defensive replacement Ronny Mauricio.

Then, after what should have been the third out of the inning on a fly ball to Juan Soto, a pitch clock violation was called after William Contreras pointed it out to the umpire ... the umpire that usually calls pitch clock violations right away.

After that scene, eerily similar to last night's catcher's interference in which Frelick immediately pointed that out to the umpire, Ryan Helsley tried to throw a pitch 300 mph to Contreras, who sent it back just as fast for a 7-4 Brewers lead.

Three Keys

This Was Set Up For The New Bullpen

This game was the first chance they had for that new bullpen to bring home a lead. Gregory Soto took care of the 5th inning, and Tyler Rogers escaped the 6th without incident. But Stanek gave up the lead in the 7th before the infamous pitch clock violation to Ryan Helsley led to the death blow ...

Hitters hit .224 against Helsley's fastball in 2023. That rose to .276 in 2024, and amazingly, .403 in 2025 going into tonight. Hitters off Helsley's fastball are basically Ted Williams this season.

Can Sproat or McLean Be Far Behind?

Of course, the Mets bullpen ... no bullpen is designed to take you from the 5th inning on, especially when one of them was burned as an opener. But that's what happens when bulk guy Frankie Montas can only go three innings, which doesn't constitute a lot of bulk.

Maybe Montas not used to being the bulk guy played a part. Maybe Montas having a 6.25 ERA at AmFam Field in 7 career starts played a part. But 72 pitches in three innings isn't going to get it done. The Mets just didn't have a lot of room for error after that. That meant that six pitchers had to be on their game for the Mets to win tonight (with Brooks Raley being unavailable.) Not sustainable.

I'm sure the calls for either Brandon Sproat or Nolan McLean will grow louder. They may not be the answer, but I'm reasonably sure they can do better than 72 pitches in 3 innings at this point.

A Tough Night For All, But ...

A really tough night for Francisco Lindor. First, with a chance to blow the game open in the first inning with the bases loaded, he took a pitch that I'm convinced he swings at if he's confident, and he's just not right now.

Then in the 2nd on a Joey Ortiz bouncer that should have ended the inning, a Lindor error gave the Brewers the lead after Alonso's milestone dinger gave it to the Mets ...

After that, the clip that will be the beacon for Mets frustration was heard around the world:

Lindor wound up 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. Any more Old Milwaukee at the bottom of that glass? No, nothing but rock bottom in sight.