Wild Brewers trick is exactly what the NY Mets should have in their playbook

Should you teach your children to fight dirty? If the New York Mets were ever looking to do their best Ric Flair impression, Tuesday is the chance.

Back in 2018, the David Stearns-led Milwaukee Brewers stashed a foreign object under the ring in Game 5 of the NLCS. Lefty Wade Miley got the start. After walking Cody Bellinger to begin the game, he was yanked for Brandon Woodruff. It was all a part of a masterplan. Going from a lefty to a righty was meant to put the Dodgers at a disadvantage where they’d either have to choose between extra lefty vs. lefty matchups or empty out their bench early to adjust.

It didn’t work out for the Brewers that night, dropping the game 5-2. They’d lose the series, but successfully took the next game with Miley on the mound to push it to seven. Along with teaching our kids whether or not it’s good to have the tenacity to throw dirt in someone’s eyes during a fight, it’s crucial they understand that if you fail once you shouldn’t give up. Could Stearns tear out this page for the Mets this week?

The Mets are setup to use this trickery against the Padres this week

Clay Holmes is the projected starter for the Mets on Tuesday with Sean Manaea as the one to piggyback behind him. Neither has been a rotation stalwart this year. On paper, it would seem the Mets would like to get about 4 quality innings from Holmes with Manaea available to get through 3 frames or so. Because each is stretched out, the best they could hope for is 5 and 4. Receiving 3.1 and 2 isn’t out of the question either.

All is fair in love and war. The Geneva Convention never covered whether this was Bush League or not. It’s kind of amazing more teams don’t regularly implement a tactic like this.

Lefties have a .593 OPS on the season against Manaea. It’s almost .900 against right-handed hitters. Hitters from both sides have a similar OPS against Holmes with the biggest difference being batting average. Lefties are hitting .226 versus him but with 7 home runs. Righties are at .273 with 5.

Holmes’ history of pitching in relief may allow him to go the three minimum hitters or maybe a full inning while making himself available for an actual start the next day or possibly later in the week. The Mets don’t have a wealth of starting pitching. Thanks to the off-day, David Peterson could always pitch on normal rest on Wednesday and allow Holmes a chance to re-take the mound for an actual start on Thursday just in case he needs the recovery time from a limited appearance.

If we had to guess, this kind of trick was something Stearns already had up his sleeve for the postseason. With time running out, they may need to run their Statue of Liberty play a little sooner. What do they have to lose other than the respect of traditionalists who believe teams should only ever use 10 pitchers in a full season, the player with the most RBI is the MVP, and paternity leave be planned for the offseason only?