Everyone confused in faceoff with Fielder

After waiting through a 2-hour, 46-minute rain delay Friday night, the Mets and Brewers were ready to play at Citi Field.

At least the Brewers were.

The Mets? They did not offer much resistance to the NL Central leaders. The Brewers won, 6-1, in a late-night affair that featured a bizarre bench-clearing incident in the eighth inning.

Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder rushed at Mets reliever Tim Byrdak after grounding out to end the inning. Mets catcher Josh Thole intercepted Fielder as players rushed out of the dugouts and ran in from the bullpens. Fielder seemed to be the only person upset. No one was ejected.

The previous pitch had been high and tight, causing Fielder to jackknife back, but that was not what he was upset about.

According to Byrdak, Fielder yelled something at himself after grounding the ball to second. Byrdak thought Fielder was yelling at him, so he yelled back. That led to Fielder running toward Byrdak and both players asking the other who they were yelling at and why.

"It was just a miscommunication," Byrdak said. "He had said something coming out of the box that I thought was directed toward me. I said something back. When he hit first base, he came back and asked me who I was talking to. I asked him who he was talking to. He said he was talking to himself. I said OK and I started walking toward the dugout and I see everybody hopping the [dugout] fence to go back out . . . I was real surprised."

Said Fielder: "He said something I didn't like. So I just asked him. I think we got it settled."

Asked if he had yelled at himself, Fielder said: "Yeah, I was talking to myself." And asked why he approached Byrdak, Fielder said, "I had a question I had to get off my chest."

Fielder had faced Byrdak 14 times before Friday. He had three hits, including a home run, and two walks. But no hit by pitches. So no history there.

Brewers reliever Frankie de la Cruz hit Mike Baxter in the buttocks with a 2-and-2 pitch with one out in the ninth, but that seemed unrelated to the fracas in the eighth.

The Mets began a stretch of three straight series against the NL's best teams -- Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Atlanta -- with their seventh loss in nine games. A season that seemed so promising last month is in danger of spiraling out of control.

"When you play a first-place team, you've got to get fired up," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "They're looking to win. They're coming in here with our lineup decimated a little bit. Nobody feels sorry for you at this level. I'm sure the Brewers are coming in here saying, 'This is a team we could feast off of.' It's our job to make sure that doesn't happen."

Mike Pelfrey allowed four runs (three earned) in five uninspired innings in his first start since getting hit on the elbow with a comebacker Aug. 13. Pelfrey (6-10) gave up eight hits and walked four (two intentionally) and left trailing 4-0.

The Brewers, who have won 20 of their last 23 games, got seven innings of six-hit, one-run ball from starter Shaun Marcum (11-3). Casey McGehee had three hits and two RBIs and Fielder had a pair of RBI singles.

The Mets scored their first run in the seventh inning at 12:11 a.m. when Thole singled to drive in Jason Pridie, who had doubled. That made it 6-1.

The Brewers scored a first-inning run when David Wright botched a two-out grounder by Ryan Braun, who then stole second. Fielder lined a single to center to make it 1-0.

Braun was later ejected by plate umpire Angel Campos for arguing a strike call in the third inning.

The Mets managed just two singles and a walk over the first four innings. The Brewers scored three runs in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead.

Corey Hart doubled to lead off the inning and was sacrificed to third by Nyjer Morgan. Pelfrey walked Braun's replacement, Mark Kotsay, and then the Brewers had three RBI hits over the next four pitches.

First, Fielder lined the first pitch he saw to left to make it 2-0. McGehee singled to center to score another run and Yuniesky Betancourt doubled down the third-base line to give Milwaukee a four-run cushion.

The Brewers expanded their lead to 6-0 in the sixth against D.J. Carrasco. McGehee had an RBI single and another run scored on a wild pitch.

Notes & quotes: Jose Reyes continued to test his strained left hamstring by running in a straight line, taking batting practice and fielding grounders. But he did not sound optimistic about rejoining the Mets' lineup on Tuesday, when he is able to come off the 15-day DL. "I don't know about that," he said. "I need to run the bases first before I decide when I'm going to play. I've been running the last few days, so I feel very good. I'm not running 100 percent, but it's getting there." . . . Jason Bay, hitless in his last 20 at-bats, was given a planned night off.

With Ken Davidoff