New York's front office turmoil has been the real story of their season — Carlos Mendoza was fired mid-year with the club sitting at 34-47, and Andy Green has been running the dugout on an interim basis ever since. Juan Soto's calf strain has kept the middle of that lineup thin, and he's targeting a September return but hasn't gotten there yet.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, is playing out the string toward October with a comfortable cushion atop the NL Central. Jorge Polanco's ankle has turned into season-ending surgery for the Mets, one more subtraction from a lineup that already couldn't cash in chances — New York went a miserable 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position across the two games before this one, and it showed again Thursday.
Both clubs are dealing with bullpen attrition — Milwaukee without Abner Uribe and JoJo Romero, New York without Devin Williams and Cionel Perez — but only one of those pens is protecting a division lead. The finale wasn't close, and it didn't need to be.