Pete Alonso was having a pretty disappointing night that could have been his last game with the New York Mets. Then everything changed with one swing.
The slugger broke out of a long slump by hitting a three-run homer off closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning, putting the Mets ahead for good in a 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday in the final game of their NL Wild Card Series.
This made Alonso the first player in major league history to hit a go-ahead homer while his team was behind in the ninth inning or later of a winner-take-all postseason game, according to OptaSTATS.
“It’s just something you practice in the backyard as a kid,” Alonso said. “You go through those scenarios as a little kid: All right, you’re in the playoffs down by a few runs. Words can’t explain. This is just unreal.”
Alonso and the Mets will move on to a best-of-five Division Series that starts Saturday in Philadelphia against the NL East champion Phillies. The night could have gone very differently for Alonso.
Milwaukee took a 2-0 lead in the seventh inning with back-to-back homers from pinch-hitter Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick, and they were looking to add more. The Brewers had runners at second and third with two outs when William Contreras hit a foul pop-up towards the stands. Alonso couldn’t catch it against the protective netting, giving the All-Star catcher another chance to drive in runs.
“It’s baseball,” Alonso said. “It’s a game of failure. Sometimes it’s not the case. Especially in these big games, you’ve got to move on to the next pitch and make a positive impact, do the best you can, stay within yourself and execute.”
The missed play didn’t matter when Edwin Díaz struck out Contreras to end that inning. Alonso then came up with the Mets trailing 2-0 but in a good position in the ninth.
Francisco Lindor started the rally by walking on a 3-2 pitch. One out later, Brandon Nimmo got a single to put the tying run on base for Alonso.
The 29-year-old Alonso has hit 226 home runs in his six years with the New York Mets, including a remarkable 53 homers in his rookie season in 2019.
“He’s with Mike Piazza as one of the greatest home run hitters in Mets history,” teammate Brandon Nimmo said.
However, Alonso hadn’t been performing well recently. He struggled toward the end of the season and hadn’t even hit an extra-base hit since his homer on Sept. 19.
Nimmo mentioned that teammates kept encouraging Alonso, telling him he was just one swing away from getting back on track.
Adding to the pressure was the fact that Alonso is set to become a free agent. When he came to bat in the ninth inning, he knew it could be his last at-bat in a Mets uniform.
“And now it’s not because he did what big Pete does,” Nimmo said. What he did was hit a shot over the right-field wall on a 3-1 changeup from Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year.
“As soon as I hit it I was like, ‘Oh yeah, nobody’s catching that,’” Alonso said.
Alonso celebrated by making a “chef’s kiss” gesture with his fingers as he rounded first base. His emotions kept flowing as the Mets added an extra run and then closed the game in the bottom of the ninth.
“No one knows until they go through it what that struggle is like,” Nimmo said. “When you’re going through tough times and haven’t had an extra-base hit in a couple of weeks, three weeks, whatever it’s been, you’re really trying to help the team however you can, but it’s just not happening.
Like I’ve told you before, you never know when that’s going to change. This game is really hard. It can turn around in an instant, and it’s tough to maintain your confidence during that.
“So the weight of emotions on him has probably been building up for the last three weeks. And when you finally come through — and you do it in such a big moment for your team — it’s hard to put that into words. I’m sure that’s why he was so emotional.”
