The Brewers move past the Mets to force Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series

MILWAUKEE – Jackson Chourio tied the game in the eighth with his second home run of the night and Garrett Mitchell delivered a two-run blast later in the inning to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 5-3 victory over the New York Mets on Wednesday , leveling their NL Wild Card series.

The teams will play the decisive Game 3 on Thursday evening. The Brewers will try to become the first team to win a best-of-three wild card series after losing the opener since MLB moved to this expanded playoff format in 2022.

“We talk about it every night: ‘Win tonight. Do whatever it takes,'” Mitchell said. “And that’s exactly what we did.”

Milwaukee was trailing 3-2 when Chourio took the lead in the eighth with a home run to right center off losing pitcher Phil Maton, making his fourth appearance on the mound in five days. The 20-year-old rookie also opened the bottom of the first inning with a drive to right off Sean Manaea, becoming the youngest player to hit a leadoff home run in the postseason.

After Blake Perkins hit a single and William Contreras grounded in a double play, Willy Adames kept the eighth inning alive with a single. Then Mitchell hit a drive just over the right-center wall, a 390-foot shot that sent the American Family Field crowd into a frenzy.

“In this situation, it's like the moment is telling you to go faster, try to do more, reach for the fences, whatever you're thinking,” Mitchell said. “For me it was just like I was just attacking in the zone. …Be yourself, be relaxed, pass it on to the next player. That was my mentality. I’m not trying to hit a home run there.”

He made it anyway, hitting a first-pitch curveball.

“Too much plate,” Maton said. “Happy with the curveball in the first pitch to get ahead. It was just one of those things where he had a good swing. “Nine times out of 10, I feel like I'm going to get a fly ball to center field for an out.” He put a good swing on it.

New York manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game that closer Edwin Díaz was available but that the Mets did not want to use him for more than one inning.

Devin Williams withdrew to earn the save in the ninth. Joe Ross got the win after pitching 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Chourio is the second-youngest player to hit a home run twice in a postseason game, behind 19-year-old Andruw Jones for Atlanta in the 1996 World Series opener at Yankee Stadium. The rookie showed no signs of pressure after the season while going 4-for-8 in two games.

Now he gives the Brewers one win from their first postseason series win since 2018.

“It’s just been an incredible year,” Chourio said through a translator. “There's not much more to say. It's been an incredible year for everyone, for all the guys in this clubhouse. I think we’ve seen what fruit that has borne.”

The Mets took the lead in the second inning after a Brewers pitcher again made a critical error near first base.

With the score tied at 1-1, the Mets had one out and no on in the second when Starling Marte hit a routine grounder to first baseman Rhys Hoskins, whose throw bounced off Frankie Montas' glove as the right-hander covered the ball.

After failing to catch Hoskins' throw, Montas failed to strike out the Mets' next two batters. Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Alvarez hit consecutive singles, with the latter hitting to bring home Marte. Francisco Lindor followed with a sacrifice fly that scored Taylor.

“I feel like that’s where it all started,” Montas said of his mistake. “If we found out, no one would be on the base. That definitely can't happen. In the postseason, you have to make your outs as best you can.”

It was the second night in a row that the Mets recovered after a Brewers pitcher botched a play at first base. New York was trailing 4-3 with two outs in the fifth inning of its 8-4 win on Tuesday when Joel Payamps was late to first base on a grounder to Hoskins, allowing Jose Iglesias to slide headfirst to safety and hit a five- Trigger run outbreak.

Milwaukee got a run back in the fifth when Brice Turang hit a leadoff double and scored on Perkins' sacrifice fly. Then the Brewers delivered the dramatic rally in the eighth inning that tied the series.

Now the season is at stake for both teams on Thursday.

“Obviously losing is no fun, but we've responded to adversity all year,” Mets first baseman Pete Alonso said. “I’m really looking forward to this challenge tomorrow. I know they are just as excited. That’s what the playoffs are about.”

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Rookie RHP Tobias Myers (9-6, 3.00 ERA) will start Game 3 for the Brewers. The Mets will start LHP Jose Quintana (10-10, 3.75).