MILWAUKEE — Chalk it up under the category of, "That's baseball."

After spending the first three innings futilely flailing away seven times with runners in scoring position against a pitcher making his major league debut, the Milwaukee Brewers saw the game change when they actually got a hit with runners in scoring position.

It was the play that led to the one run they didn't score but so desperately needed in what turned out to be a 6-5 loss in 10 innings to the New York Mets Tuesday night at Miller Park.

With three runs already in and the bases loaded, Corey Hart lifted a soft fly to short left-center that easily scored Rickie Weeks from third.

J.J. Hardy, on second base, read the blooper beyond Mets shortstop Jose Reyes perfectly, taking off the moment he knew it would fall.

However, "I watched it too long," Hardy said. "I went straight into third rather than rounding it."

The result of the straight-ahead dash was a wide turn at third. That gave Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran enough time to pick up the ball and throw through the legs of cutoff man Carlos Delgado to catcher Robinson Cancel, who used his squatty frame to block the plate and apply the tag on Hardy for the final out of the inning that ended at 5-all.

"The play of the game," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "It never even entered my mind that they'd get him."

The Brewers were let down twice by some shaky defense on the right side of the infield even though first baseman Prince Fielder and second baseman Weeks avoided being charged with the errors that cost the Brewers two runs, including the game-winner in the 10th.

Weeks couldn't handle catcher Jason Kendall's throw to first on Reyes' sacrifice bunt attempt. It allowed Daniel Murphy to advance from first to third and eventually score on Endy Chavez's sacrifice fly to right that allowed the Mets to escape with their second straight victory. Salomon Torres (6-4) was the victim.

It was the second error charged to the Brewers, and it easily could have gone elsewhere. Kendall's throw was into the baseline in trying to nab the ultra-speedy Reyes, but it was a toss that glanced off Weeks' glove as he pulled it away from the oncoming Reyes.

The first error went to Hardy at shortstop in the Mets' three-run third. His one-hop throw came up Fielder, but it was a perfect, waist-high bounce that Fielder should have been able to handle. It helped set the table that was cleared by Beltran's three-run homer off starter Manny Parra that pushed the Mets' lead to 5-1.

But even after that, it never did it seem that the Brewers were out of this game against the Mets, who line up as the Brewers' potential first-round playoff opponent at this moment.

That looked to be the case in the Brewers' half of the 10th, when with two outs, Brad Nelson, a left-handed hitting first baseman just called from Class AAA Nashville, lined a pinch double to right off Mets closer Luis Ayala.

"I was taking a shot at a lightning bolt," Yost said of using the power-hitting Nelson in that critical situation with just one previous major league at-bat.

Nelson's hit brought up Gabe Kapler, the Brewers' most reliable pinch hitter this season.

With pinch runner Tony Gwynn, another September callup, dancing at second base, Kapler drew a walk to bring up Weeks, who opened the game with a home run off Mets rookie Jonathon Niese. Weeks added three singles in his next three at-bats to tie his career high of four hits.

Weeks excited those who remained from the original crowd of 36,587, grounding a 1-2 pitch just outside third base, a ball that if fair would have had a chance to score Kapler from first.

But that left Weeks to face another pitch, which he swung at and missed. Catcher Brian Schneider dropped it, but Weeks was an easy out at first to end the thriller.

The loss closed the Brewers' lead in the National League wild card race to 4 1/2 games over Philadelphia, the Mets' primary rival in the NL East. The Mets held on to their two-game lead over the Phillies.