Milwaukee, WI – Daniel Murphy stroked a two-run homer and Lucas Duda added a solo shot to lead the New York Mets to a 7-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a three-game set at Miller Park.
Ike Davis and Josh Thole also drove in a run for the Mets, who had dropped eight of their last nine entering the game.
"They (the Brewers) play great here," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "They're still in the (playoff) hunt. If they make a mistake we have to capitalize, and tonight we did."
Jonathan Niese (11-9) gave up two runs on six hits and struck out five over six innings to snap a three-start losing streak.
Aramis Ramirez went 2-for-4 and Carlos Gomez, Nyjer Morgan and Mike Fiers each knocked in a run for the Brewers, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Fiers (9-8) was tagged for four runs on six hits and struck out four over five innings to absorb the loss.
"Larry was tight. I know pitchers want pitches off the plate, but there weren't many that Larry missed," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said of home plate umpire Larry Vanover." We haven't played this type of game in quite a while. We're going to have one every once in a while. No one expected us to be in this thing (the wild card race), but we got back in it. We just didn't play that well today.
The Mets pushed two across in the first two innings.
In the first, Daniel Murphy walked then moved to third on David Wright's double to left field. Ike Davis followed with a ground out to first base, allowing Murphy to score.
Lucas Duda then ripped a ground-rule double to right field to score Wright
In the second, Niese singled before Murphy smacked a two-run homer over the right-field wall.
The Brewers got two back in the home half to cut it to 4-2. Jonathan Lucroy singled, moved to second on a Carlos Gomez bloop single, then scored when Travis Ishikawa hit a ground-rule double to left field.
Two batters later, Fiers helped his own cause with a single to score Ishikawa.
New York added three in the sixth inning to push its lead to 7-2.
Duda opened the inning with his 14th homer of the season. After a Jordany Valdespin pop out, Andres Torres reached on a throwing error before coming around on a Thole double. Nieses' infield single allowed Thole to move to third before crossing the plate on Ruben Tejada's ground out.
Milwaukee added a run in the ninth when Morgan roped a triple to right-center field to score Jean Segura.
Game Notes
Niese walked three batter for the first time in his last 18 starts which he went at least six innings ... New York was just 2-for-1- with runners in scoring position ... David Wright, who went 2-for-5, extended his hitting streak to eight games ... The Brewers fell to 11-17 against the NL East ... Milwaukee went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.
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