NEW YORK -- The Brewers took the first of a three-game series against the Mets on Friday night, winning, 10-2, after a two-hour, 42-minute rain delay that pushed the game’s start time to nearly 10 p.m. ET. The late-night win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Brewers, who had lost seven of eight overall entering Friday’s game.
The offense broke out in a big way for Milwaukee, tallying 10 runs on 10 hits. The 10-run performance was tied for the team’s second-highest scoring game of the season and was the most it has scored on the road.
Milwaukee's 10 runs, all without a homer, were by far its most this season. The Brewers hadn’t scored more than four runs in any previous game in which they did not hit at least one home run. Last season, they had just one game where they scored as many as 10 runs in a game without a home run -- and it came on Sept. 4.
“Everyone swung the bats really well tonight, and we needed a night like this, for sure,” Lorenzo Cain said.
Cain brought the excitement for the Brewers in the series opener, dazzling both in the field and at the plate. He made a leaping catch at the wall to rob a home run from Todd Frazier in the second inning, then later blew the game open with a two-out, bases-clearing double in the fifth.
“This is [his best catch] this year, for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Tonight’s was really improbable. It was remarkably timed. ... He timed it so that his leap was really, really above the wall. Just a special play. I thought the ball was gone at first, and he was just playing with us -- but then he’s got the ball in his glove.”
Counsell wasn’t the only one who thought that Frazier had homered.
“It was the best one I’ve seen, because his arm and shoulder [were] above the wall, plus the water ricocheting off, it was very dramatic,” first baseman Eric Thames said. “We all thought it was gone, and he came back just shaking his head like, ‘Nope, not today.’”
The Brewers' ensuing trip to the plate produced a five-run rally, and Cain said that he thought the catch helped sway the momentum.
“I think it gave us a little boost," he said. "That’s why I try to make a play right there. ... We just kind of took off from there.”
Along with Cain's game-altering catch, Counsell noted the importance of his leadoff hitter's fifth-inning double, which snapped a 13 at-bat hitless streak -- and made the game feel "comfortable" for the Brewers.
“He needed a hit," Counsell said. "He was scuffling a little bit in St. Louis, so I was happy for him to get that big hit and get another one later.”
Seven of the eight position players to start the game had at least one hit, with Yasmani Grandal being the lone exception.
And they did it all in a game started by reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom. He went just four innings in his return from the injured list, allowing five runs, walking three batters and hitting two others. deGrom has now allowed 14 earned runs in just 12 innings pitched in his last three starts.