Mets' defense bites them again in 4-3 loss to Brewers

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Jul 22, 2026

Published in Baseball

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MILWAUKEE — For a team that supposedly prioritizes run prevention, the Mets sure do make some strange decisions. Ones that typically lead to runs, instead of preventing them.

They finished a six-game road trip by going 3-3, winning a series in Philadelphia and losing one in Milwaukee. They capped the series with a 4-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday afternoon at American Family Field.

With Luis Robert Jr. back in action, the Mets currently have five outfielders. In an effort to get Robert and Juan Soto time off, the Mets sat the two of them Wednesday in the series finale, using Carson Benge in left field, A.J. Ewing in center and Brett Baty in right field. Tyrone Taylor, an excellent outfield defender at all three spots, was left on the bench until later in the game, much to the detriment of the Mets and right-hander Christian Scott.

The decision came down to having Baty’s left-handed bat in the lineup, instead of Taylor, who hits from the right side.

“I think you’re always trying to balance those two things,” said interim manager Andy Green. “You have the capacity to unwind it pretty quickly if you get some offense early in the game. We’re hoping to do that. Obviously, didn’t work out the way we wanted to today.”

With the Mets up 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth, the Brewers put runners on the corners with two outs. Joey Ortiz hit a deep fly to the right field warning track for what should have been the final out. The ball drifted, dropping right beyond his outstretched glove for a two-run triple. Christian Yelich then scored Ortiz with a base hit, pulling the Brewers ahead 3-1.

“Those three runs are on me there,” Baty said. “That’s the difference in the game. I’ve got to make that play.”

Baty hadn’t played in the outfield in nearly a month, with his last appearance there coming June 24. Before that, it was April 30. It was only his 18th start at the position, and 21st time playing there overall.

“It was tailing more than he expected,” Green said. “[That] was kind of what I gathered from him and kind of what it looked like. I think he had a good jump on it, got a bead on it, and just a righty hitting the ball to right field on the track. Ball it tails on you quite a bit, and tailed a little more than expected.”

To be fair, Scott was inefficient at best over only 3 2/3 innings, and run prevention starts with pitching. He gave up three runs on four hits, walked three and struck out six, consistently falling behind on hitters and throwing too many pitches early.

“I don’t think it was his best command day by any stretch,” Green said. “I do think that there is a world where we make a play behind him and he gets through five, and we’re saying that was gutsy. [It’s] a team that just is hard to punch out, so you just had a lot of elongated at-bats, a lot of foul balls.”

Scott (3-2) threw 89 in an outing that was somewhat disappointing compared to his last few, when he shut out the Kansas City Royals and Phillies in five innings and 5 2/3 innings. The Mets have been limiting his pitches but were hoping to start pushing him deeper starting in Milwaukee.

“It was frustrating,” Scott said. “Honestly, I thought they did a really good job. They had a good plan. They didn’t expand the zone very often, so they really pushed me into the strike zone. I don’t think I did a good job of getting ahead early. I had to fight back into counts, and they had a lot of foul balls and fought me pretty well. So credit goes to them.”

Marcus Semien hit his 10th home run of the season in the top of the second off right-handed starter Logan Henderson (4-1), who held the Mets to two earned runs over five innings and struck out nine. The second run came in the fifth when Baty hit a homer off Henderson to bring the Mets to within one run of tying.

The Mets brought in left-hander A.J. Minter to keep the deficit at one run, but with two outs, Ortiz hit a ground-rule double that got stuck in the tarp, and Yelich tripled him home.

Ortiz, the No. 9 hitter, was a home run away from the cycle.

Left-hander Aaron Ashby struck out the side for Milwaukee (64-38) in the top of the seventh. It was a lackluster response by the Mets (43-60).

As the Mets careen toward the trade deadline, developing the kids, especially the starting pitchers, is the priority. Using Baty in right field didn’t set up Scott for success. Baty is a capable infielder, and though the Mets like what they’ve seen from him in right field this season, he’s made some brutal mistakes there due to nothing more than inexperience.

It might have even been better to play Taylor there to showcase him before the deadline.

The Mets rallied for a run in the ninth. They couldn’t get the tying run across the plate, and Trevor Megill, the brother of injured Mets starter Tylor Megill, converted the save (16).