MILWAUKEE — Even Edwin Díaz isn’t immune from the stench that has engulfed the Mets over the past two weeks.
The All-Star closer could only drop his head and stroll from the mound after throwing his fifth pitch in Sunday’s ninth inning.
Isaac Collins lofted that slider over the right field fence, sending the Mets to their seventh straight loss, 7-6 to the sizzling Brewers at American Family Field.
The losing streak matches their longest of the season. Overall, the Mets have lost 11 of 12 games since winning a series in San Francisco in late July.
Every day has become a new low for the Mets, who trail Philadelphia by 5 ½ games in the NL East. Their lead on Cincinnati for the NL’s third and final wild-card spot has dwindled to 1 ½ games.
“We haven’t played well for quite a bit and that is what happens,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We can’t be looking at the standings. We have got to start getting the job done.”
Brandon Nimmo isn’t about to concede the division to the Phillies.
“We can still go on a run, we have still got time,” Nimmo said. “I don’t think the division is slipping away. We’re still within shot and we have been known, this team specifically, to go on runs, so we can easily rattle off a winning streak, especially with the people that we have got here.”
The Mets blew a five-run lead, on a day Sean Manaea sputtered in the middle innings and the vaunted bullpen couldn’t protect the lead. The Brewers, who own MLB’s best record, tied the game against Ryan Helsley in the eighth before finishing business for their ninth straight victory.
Díaz, pitching for only the third time in two weeks, got the final out in the eighth before Collins ended it leading off the ninth. Díaz worked the count to 2-2 before throwing a slider that sat in the middle of the plate.
“I always want to throw my slider down in the zone and try to make him chase,” said Díaz, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in his previous 19 appearances, beginning on June 6. “I just missed it. [Francisco Alvarez] was calling for a fastball and I shook him off. Next time I will follow him.”
Manaea turned in the latest shortened start by a Mets starting pitcher. The left-hander threw 87 pitches over four innings in which he allowed four earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks. It was a second straight underwhelming performance from Manaea, who surrendered five earned runs over 5 ²/₃ innings against Cleveland in his previous start.
“It’s frustrating — no one wants to be here,” Manaea said of the team’s free fall. “We have just got to get through it.”
The Mets received solid offensive production, but stopped scoring after the fifth inning.
Juan Soto and Jeff McNeil each delivered an RBI single in the first after Francisco Lindor got drilled leading off the game and stole second. The Mets sent seven batters to the plate in the inning against Quinn Priester.
Brett Baty’s homer leading off the second extended the lead to 3-0. The blast was Baty’s 12th this season and first since July 21.
Ronny Mauricio stroked an RBI single in the third after Pete Alonso doubled with one out. Alonso remained at 252 career home runs a day after tying Darryl Strawberry atop the franchise’s all-time list. He will get an opportunity to eclipse the record in front of the home crowd at Citi Field this week.
Cedric Mullins’ first homer for his new team extended the lead to 5-0 in the fourth. Mullins, whose Mets tenure started quietly after arriving from the Orioles, had two hits on Saturday before clearing the fence in left-center a day later.
William Contreras homered leading off the fourth to slice the deficit to 5-1. But before the inning was complete, Manaea loaded the bases and surrendered a two-run single to Joey Ortiz.
Alonso’s RBI double in the fifth knocked out Priester and gave the Mets a 6-3 lead. Soto’s single and Nimmo’s sacrifice bunt began the inning.
Manaea was removed after surrendering a leadoff single to Isaac Collins in the fifth. Contreras’ second homer of the game, a shot over the right field fence against Reed Garrett, pulled the Brewers within 6-5.
Helsley surrendered a game-tying RBI single to Ortiz in the eighth. Ortiz’s grounder off the diving Alonso’s glove followed a leadoff walk to Brice Turang and Danny Jansen’s one-out single.
“That wasn’t a good showing,” Mendoza said of the weekend in Wisconsin. “They pretty much outplayed us.”
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