The Mets need to prove they can withstand the pressure of the wild card chase after their ugly loss to the Brewers

A poor performance, even this late in the season during a tight wild card race, could be explained away as one of those nights. But not two.

After an ugly 8-4 loss in Milwaukee to the Brewers on Friday night, it's suddenly hard not to imagine the Mets playing hard and feeling the pressure of having so much on the line as the games dwindle down to a few games.

In some ways, the two rainouts this week seemed to be a break for the Mets, giving them a chance to perhaps earn a wild card somewhere other than Atlanta, the city with so many haunting failures and the place where they looked flat -Secure space Tuesday evening.

Still, the Brewers might be their worst nightmare.

After all, they are now 0-4 against them and have been since the season opener at Citi Field. And while the Mets are certainly in a much better position as a team after all these months, not much had changed in the way the game played.

That said, the Brewers are a troublesome bunch of grinders with little star power who put the ball in play, steal bases, play good defense and rely heavily on one of the best bullpens in the majors this season.

They did all that and more on Friday night, most notably stealing six bases without getting caught and increasing their season total to 14-of-14 against the Mets.

As such Francisco Lindor told reporters after the game that “we were outplayed in all phases of the game on Friday night.”

No, they didn't score, especially in the clutch. They didn't pitch, even with their ace on the mound. And they made mistakes defensively.

They lost too Francisco Alvarez He suffered a back injury leaving the game in the seventh inning after sliding into third base and probably won't know until Saturday whether he will be available.

Actually, Carlos Mendoza might well be tempted to play along Luis Torrens even if Alvarez is fine. Torrens is much better at throwing runners out and also has to be better at blocking pitches than Alvarez, who was charged with a passed ball Friday night and also failed to block two wild pitches.

But as bad as it looked on Friday night, even stopping the game in progress is secondary. Their turnaround this season was fueled by excellent starting pitching and a lineup that was patchy at times but deep and dangerous for the most part.

None of that was evident in the two defeats this week.

It was one thing Luis Severino got off to a mediocre start on Tuesday night in Atlanta. It was something completely different Sean Manaeawho legitimately pitched like an ace for two months, suddenly got rattled in the first inning on Friday and suffered a grand slam Rhys Hoskins that changed the character of the game.

To be fair, Manaea appeared to be under pressure from home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus (who eventually ejected Mendoza) in the first inning and was visibly frustrated about it. He had reason to believe he had reached the top of the zone with a two-strikeout fastball against Hoskins, but he didn't get the call.

But it's still his fault that he ultimately grooved a 3-2 fastball that Hoskins deflected deep.

This is even more true as SNY's Jerry Blevins noted on the Mets' postgame show when questioning Manaea's pitching sequence: The left-hander threw five fastballs in a row to a hitter who makes a living throwing fastballs from lefties destroy.

That being said, Manaea just wasn't the type to be that dominant. He didn't have his good fastball, which has been superior to hitters since his adoption Chris Sale's sidearm delivery in July.

“The fastball had no life up there (in the strike zone),” Mendoza said afterward.

And Manaea told reporters that for some reason the fastball had more dip than the usual high ride. When asked why, Manaea shook her head and said, “I don't know.”

It was such a night. The left-hander lasted until the fourth round but never really found anything and only managed one strikeout.

And so the burden was on the Mets offense to mount a comeback, and countering it seemed very feasible Frankie Montasa skilled right-hander with a history of control issues and too many pitching errors.

But the only damage the Mets could do to him in four innings was a two-run home run Mark Vientos. The Brewers bullpen did the rest, starting with three scoreless innings from another journeyman. Joe Ross.

Especially the Mets hitters Pete Alonsolooked nervous and chased pitches all night, resulting in a total of 11 strikeouts, seven combined from Vientos, Alonso and Brandon Nimmo.

In his return to the field, Lindor looked good with two singles and a walk in five plate appearances, which should provide cause for optimism. He appeared stiff at shortstop and dropped a few throws on routine ground balls, admitting that hunching over puts a strain on his back, so Mendoza might want to consider using him as DH and playing Luisangel Acuna in short.

We'll see. Jose Quintana gets the ball on Saturday and maybe he can be a stopper.

But beyond that, the Mets need a spark. More specifically, they need to prove that they can handle the pressure and not suffocate like they did at the end of the 2022 season.

I wasn't ready to say that it felt all too familiar after a blowout loss in Atlanta. But it definitely does now.