1 bold move by the Mets that led to their Game 1 win against the Brewers

No rest for the New York Mets? No problem, as the Mets took Game 1 of their best-of-3 Wild Card series against the Milwaukee Brewers by an 8-4 margin on Tuesday in Milwaukee as they carried the momentum from a wild day of baseball in Atlanta into the beginning of the postseason.

In a season that has required contributions from everybody on the team, the spotlight was placed on Luis Severino, hoping to provide the Mets with length. The Brewers were determined to foil those hopes. However, there was one bold move regarding Severino that paved the way for the Mets to win the way they did last night.

The Mets decision to keep Luis Severino in Game 1 after a rocky 4th inning made the difference in securing victory.

Right from the gate, it was clear that Luis Severino was not going to be sharp, as he allowed two runs, three hits, a walk, and a bases loaded hit-by-pitch in the first inning, and that the Mets offense would need to hit with the team down 2-0 against Freddy Peralta. And the Mets did, scoring three times in the next inning.

Then, after getting into and out of trouble in the 2nd and 3rd innings, Severino gave up two more runs in a 26-pitch 4th inning, putting his pitch count to 79 and the Mets behind 4-3.

What we have seen teams do recently in postseason play is pull their starters early if the stuff wasn't there and they try to get their bullpens working again. But given that Severino hadn't pitched in a week, and that the Mets were coming off an emotional doubleheader with two of their best relievers unavailable, he had Severino pitch the 5th inning after the Mets took an 8-4 lead. He generated his first clean inning of the night on 13 pitches, and did the same on the same number of pitches in the next inning.

Severino finished his gutsy performance with six innings, giving up eight hits, four runs (three earned), two walks, three strikeouts, and a hit by pitch while throwing 105 pitches with 68 strikes. Performances like these keep building trust between the manager and the pitcher, and Carlos Mendoza's guts to stick with Severino to pitch a shut down inning and give the Mets relievers less work to do with a probably unavailable Phil Maton and Edwin Diaz.

This was the buildup of something all season in which Mendoza chose to push the starters deeper into games after seeing the bullpen constanly being overtaxed earlier in the season. The rotation's resurgence helped the Mets get to where they are and helped Mendoza make the decision to not go to their bullpen early like Brewers skipper Pat Murphy did (which backfired).

Jose Butto and Ryne Stanek combined to get the final nine outs in succession to preserve the 8-4 victory. So this get the Mets to Wednesday night where they can eliminate the Brewers with a rested bullpen and Sean Manaea on the mound.