MILWAUKEE – Francisco Lindor hit a home run and a two-run drive, David Peterson pitched seven brilliant innings and the New York Mets moved to within one win of a playoff spot with a 5-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday .

Francisco Alvarez also had two RBI for the Mets, who now travel to Atlanta and need at least a doubleheader split against the rival Braves on Monday to clinch a National League wild card.

New York (88-72) could have secured a postseason berth with a win and a loss at Arizona on Sunday, but the Diamondbacks (89-73) beat San Diego 11-2 at home to close out their regular season.

The afternoon twinbill in Atlanta was scheduled to make up two Mets-Braves games that were postponed on Wednesday and Thursday due to heavy rain from Hurricane Helene. New York has a potential tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks after winning the season series 4-3, allowing the Mets to make the playoffs by sweeping or splitting the doubleheader.

Arizona needs a win from the Braves (88-72) or the Mets to advance.

If the Mets and Braves split, New York would receive the No. 6 seed in the NL playoff round and return to Milwaukee to play in a best-of-three wild-card series against the NL Central champion Brewers to compete.

A doubleheader sweep would give the Mets the No. 5 seed and send them to San Diego, while Arizona would take the No. 6 seed and play in Milwaukee.

A Braves sweep would eliminate New York, while a Mets sweep would eliminate Atlanta.

The Braves get the No. 5 seed with a split or a sweep.

New York won for just the second time in its last 14 meetings with Milwaukee, finishing 1-5 against the Brewers this season.

Peterson (10-3) allowed just one infield single in the first inning. He struck out eight and walked three.

Edwin Díaz needed 26 pitches in the ninth to secure New York’s ninth shutout of the year – all since July 11th.

The Mets took a quick lead (12-6) in the first against Colin Rea when Lindor walked, stole second base and scored on Brandon Nimmo’s single. Lindor played on the field after serving as DH on Saturday. The star shortstop returned to the lineup Friday after being sidelined for nearly two weeks due to lower back pain.

Jose Iglesias led off the third with a single, extending his hitting streak to 20 games, the longest by a Mets player this season.

JD Martinez went 0-for-36 with a leadoff double in the fourth and scored on Alvarez’s single. Lindor’s run-scoring single later in the inning made it 3-0 and prompted chants of “MVP!” MVP!” from a loud group of fans sitting behind the New York dugout. Mets owner Steve Cohen was among those in the area. Lindor then stole his second base of the game.

Alvarez’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made the score 4-0, and the Mets tacked on another run when Lindor hit his 32nd home run to lead off the sixth.

Peterson threw 95 pitches, rebounding from a poor performance in his last start on September 20.

Milwaukee finished the regular season with a 93-69 record, the 11th season in franchise history with 90 or more wins, following a 92-70 record last season.

In what may have been his final home game of the regular season with the Brewers, shortstop Willy Adames was substituted on the field in the seventh inning and left to a standing ovation.

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Milwaukee drew 33,754 fans to the regular-season finale at American Family Field, reaching total attendance for the season of 2,537,202, a slight decrease from last year’s 2,551,347.

TRAINER ROOM

Mets: Alvarez returned to the starting lineup after back spasms caused him to miss an 8-4 loss on Friday night. He put in an impressive performance on Saturday.

NEXT

Mets: Luis Severino and Tylor Megill are expected to be the team’s starters Monday in Atlanta.

Brewers: Will host the Mets or Diamondbacks in Game 1 of a Wild Card Series on Tuesday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB