It was the longest game in the history of Miller Park, a stadium that opened in April of 2001.

It was a five hour and 22-minute exercise in strikeouts, errors, missed opportunities and a walk-off win.

It was the longest game the New York Mets have played in four years.

It was a game that saw the Mets offensive woes continue as they have now scored only 26 runs in their last 10 games while hitting only .212 as a team during that span. The Mets struck out 17 times in the game (while the Brewers struck out 18).

It was a game that saw the Milwaukee Brewers score two runs in the bottom of the 18th to defeat the Mets, who had scored a run in the top of the frame, 4-3. It dropped the Mets to under .500 for the first time this season. (box score)

In an 18 inning game, only two Mets had more than one hit, Jeff McNeil with three and Pete Alonso with two as the Mets continue to struggle at the plate.

And as far as defense, Amed Rosario continues to struggle as he had two more errors (and played poorly throughout the game in the field) to give the Mets 29 error on the season, worst in the league.

Pitching

Zack Wheeler made the start for the Mets. It was his fifth career start against the Brewers, fourth at Miller Park.  Zack has had his difficulties against the Brew Crew over the years. He has not beaten Milwaukee since July 5, 2013, despite pitching to a respectable 3.00 ERA.

After retiring the first six Brewers, Wheeler ran into trouble in the third inning, made worse by his own fielding error. Ben Gamel led off with a single. After strikeouts to Orlando Arcia and Gio Gonzalez, Lorenzo Cain singled to score Gamel. Gamel got to second on a throwing error by Wheeler on an attempted pick-off. It was the 28th error of the year for the Mets, which is the most in the National League.

Eric Thames walked to extend the inning. Mike Moustakas followed with an RBI double to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead. Moustakas has been a thorn in the Mets side in this series at the plate and in the field.

That would be all the Wheeler yielded in an otherwise excellent outing, His line was seven innings pitched, six hits, two earned runs, one walk, and ten strikeouts. He threw 111 pitches of which 77 were strikes. It was the sixth career double-digit strikeout game in Wheeler’s career, the second this year.

Daniel Zamora pitched a one-two-three eighth inning. Seth Lugo followed him in the ninth inning and pitched three effective innings. Lugo hadn’t pitched more than two innings since July 9, 2018. Edwin Diaz entered the game in the twelfth. It was his first appearance in a tie game on the road. Diaz pitched a one-two-three inning.

Drew Gagnon started the bottom of the thirteenth and faced two batters. He allowed a lead-off single by Hernan Perez.

Ryan O’Rourke was next to the mound and promptly walked Eric Thames to put runners on first and second. Thames was picked off first on an unsuccessful steal. Yasmani Grandal flew out to Conforto to end the inning.

Robert Gsellman came in to pitch the fourteenth and gave up a double to Ryan Braun but stranded him at second. In the fifteenth, Gsellman worked around another error by Rosario to extend the game to the sixteenth. He struck out four batters in his first two innings of relief. Gsellman worked the third inning for the second time this year and pitched a clean sixteenth inning. He was excellent after pitching 1.1 innings on Friday.

Chris Flexen entered the game in the 17th and promptly gave up the fifth hit by Braun, a double to deep center. But after an unsuccessful sacrifice, Braun was left stranded on second.

In the 18th, after the Mets had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the frame, Flexen started things off with a walk to Thames. Moustakas flew out to center for the first out and Grandal, who was hitless on the evening, also drew a walk putting runners on first and second. Travis Shaw also drew a walk to load the bases. The next hitter was Braun who singled for his sixth hit of the night to score two runs to give Milwaukee the walk-off 4-3 win. It was the first six-hit game of Braun’s career.

Offense

The Mets managed ten hits in the game this evening.

New York scored a two-out run in the second inning to take the lead. Wilson Ramos singled followed by an RBI triple by Amed Rosario. It was Rosario’s third triple of the year and it gave the Mets a 1-0 lead.

Otherwise, the Mets got a bloop single in the fourth by Michael Conforto and that was it for Mets offense in this game until the ninth inning. The Brewers used eight pitchers in the game and they limited the Mets to ten hits but only three runs to continued the Mets offensive woes.

The Mets got Wheeler off the hook and got a spark in the ninth as Pete Alonso led off the inning with a home run to tie the game at two. It was Alonso’s first homer in the month of May after stroking nine in April. It was his eighth homer socked in the seventh inning or later which leads the majors. Alonso singled in the 11th only the second hit in the prior seven innings for the Mets, both by Alonso.

The Mets managed two hits in the thirteenth on singles by Adeiny Hechavarria (his first hit as a Met) and Jeff McNeil but failed to score.

In the 18th, after two were out, Hechavarria singled and stole second (his first steal as a Met). McNeil drove him in with a sharp single to right to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. It was McNeil’s third consecutive hit.

 On Deck

The Mets and Brewers conclude their three-game series Sunday at 2:10 PM. It will be the final time the two teams see each other during the regular season. Jason Vargas will make the start for the Mets. In his last three starts, he has a 1.93 ERA and opposing batters are hitting only .180 against him.

The Mets are 2-1 in Vargas’ last three outings. Brewers’ ace Zach Davies goes for Milwaukee. Davies leads the National League with a 1.38 ERA. He is 3-0 on the young season and opponents are hitting .250 off of him. The game will be televised on SNY and broadcast on WCBS-880.