MILWAUKEE — David Stearns believed he spoke for everyone involved when he said, “Nobody wants to do a doubleheader on Monday.”
He wasn't thinking about the Brewers.
The Mets, Braves and Major League Baseball don't want to cram two postponed games this week into one day after the regular season ends and the day before the playoffs begin.
For example, Rob Manfred could cancel Monday's game if the Mets and Braves learn their postseason fates. The commissioner could decide that those games should not be held if only seeding is at stake.
The Brewers, coming off an 8-4 loss to the Mets in the series opener on Friday, are doing their part to make both games happen.
“It seems like it's one-sided, right? You have to play the game, right?” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before his club faced the Mets. I have to play.”
The final series of the season doesn't matter to the Brewers, who have clinched the No. 3 seed in the National League.
Still, they are motivated to beat the Mets because doing so also helps ensure that the game in Atlanta is important and must be played.
Milwaukee will face the third-place wild card in the National League in the first round of the postseason, but that opponent could be the Mets or Braves, both of whom have weakened after enduring 18 innings the night before.
Murphy believes not playing a full schedule will be an advantage. This is because “there is no need to use extra pitches that would normally be used.''
If the Mets use their normal five starting pitchers for the final five games of the season, no starting pitchers will be regularly rested for Game 1 of the postseason.
Murphy said before starting a series in which the standings don't matter for his team that the Brewers will “play to win,” but acknowledged they won't “drain the tank.”
For example, he didn't expect to use a relief pitcher on consecutive game days.
He said he wouldn't be rooting for a first-round game against an exhausted team that survived 18 innings on Monday.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Murphy said.
