An injury to a very important pitcher, another blown game by Eric Gagne, and the Brewers failed to hold onto a 2-1 lead late on Monday.  Milwaukee fell to New York 4-2, after Gagne surrendered a two-run shot by the great first-baseman Carlos Delgado in the eighth.  Ben Sheets pitched well for 5.0 innings, giving up only 2 hits, but his velocity was way down, and he left the game due to left groin tightness.  Should he miss significant time, it would be a crippling blow to a Milwaukee team desperately trying to make the playoffs for the first time in a quarter century.  Ryan Braun doubled in J.J. Hardy in the first off of Johan Santana, but the Crew only mustered one other run off of a rare balk by the former Cy Young winner.

Offensive MVP: Mets 1B Carlos Delgado (2-4/1R/1HR/2RBI/0BB/0K)

Pitching MVP: Mets RPs Nelson Figueroa (Win-3rd), Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, and Luis Ayala  (Save- 4th) (3IP/1H/0ER/0BB/5SO/0HR)

Alex’s Take:

This was not a very encouraging game on any level.  Ben Sheets is hurt again, Eric Gagne is blowing games again, and the Brewers fell flat to a good team after beating up on bad ones again.  If they can bounce back from this defeat, it would be a good sign, but the 4-2 loss could hurt Milwaukee much longer depending on the status of the Crew’s right-handed ace.