Zac Thornton picked up the first win of his major league career, and the Mets backed it with a clean 4-0 win over the Brewers that evened the series.
The night had a little bit of everything: a former top prospect facing the organization that once waited on him, a rookie lefty who kept finding ways to get outs, and a Brewers defense that helped the Mets turn a tight game into a comfortable one. Brandon Sproat, now with Milwaukee after the offseason trade, squared off against his old club, while Thornton-once a name known mostly to the most devoted Mets fans-handled the bigger stage in just his fourth big league start.
The Mets got to Sproat first. In the second inning, Jared Young jumped on a 2-1 pitch and sent it into the bullpen in right field for a solo homer.
That was the only clean damage for a while, but New York kept making him labor. The Mets put a runner on in every inning Sproat worked, drew four walks, and steadily pushed his pitch count up.
The game cracked open after Sproat’s final batter. He walked Bo Bichette with two outs in the fifth, then handed the ball to Chad Patrick.
From there, the Brewers’ defense unraveled. Francisco Lindor hit a hard grounder to second that bounced off Brice Turang and into center field, and Turang didn’t chase it down, letting Lindor take second.
Carson Benge followed with a ground ball into the second base hole, and Turang again hesitated, allowing it to get through into right field for two runs. The inning got even messier from there, as Benge should have been thrown out trying to advance to second when the throw from right field was cut off by Andrew Vaughn at first base, but the throw to second sailed into the outfield.
Patrick did strike out Luis Robert Jr. to end the inning, but the damage was done. Sproat’s line finished at 4.2 innings, four hits, four walks, four strikeouts and two earned runs.
Thornton, meanwhile, kept stacking zeros. He wasn’t overpowering-he finished with just two strikeouts-but he kept Milwaukee from building much of anything.
The Mets also gave him help in the field. In the third, Joey Ortiz sent a soft liner toward left, and A.J.
Ewing, making his first start at the position with Robert in center, made a diving catch. In the fifth, Luis Lara ripped a grounder toward the third-base line, and Bichette handled it cleanly and fired across for the final out.
At one point, Thornton retired 13 Brewers in a row. That run ended when Cooper Pratt and Ortiz opened the sixth with back-to-back singles, putting the tying run on base.
Thornton answered by striking out Jackson Chourio, then got another break when a 1-2 pitch slipped past Luis Torrens. The runner at first tried to advance, the runner at second hesitated, and the Mets recovered in time to cut down Pratt at third for the second out.
Turang then lifted a long fly ball to the left-field warning track, and Ewing tracked it down to finish the inning.
That was Thornton’s last frame. He went six scoreless innings, allowing three singles and one walk on 81 pitches.
It also extended his scoreless streak to 18 innings over his last three outings. The contact against him wasn’t always weak, so there was some good fortune mixed in, but the Mets will take it.
Three straight quality starts is now very much in play.
Once Thornton was done, the Mets bullpen took over. Luke Weaver worked a 1-2-3 seventh, Brooks Raley followed with a perfect inning and a strikeout, and then Luis Robert Jr. delivered the loudest swing of the night in the eighth. He launched a towering solo shot to left field, a blast measured at 112.2 mph and 451 feet, to make it 4-0.
Devin Williams finished it off in the ninth. It was his first appearance at American Family Field since October 3, 2024, when he allowed the most devastating home run of his career against the team that’s now paying him. This time, he allowed a leadoff single and nothing else before closing the door.
The Mets walked away with the win, Thornton got his first career victory, and the series is tied heading into tomorrow afternoon.
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