Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning, leading the New York Mets to a 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night, allowing them to win their NL Wild Card Series.
With this exciting comeback in Game 3 against Milwaukee, the Mets moved forward in the playoffs for the first time since they won the 2015 National League pennant.
They will play a best-of-five Division Series starting Saturday in Philadelphia against the NL East champion Phillies. This will be the first time these rivals meet in the postseason. “This has been unreal. What a ride,” Alonso said. “I’m just excited to help keep this team alive.”
Alonso made history by becoming the first major leaguer to hit a go-ahead homer when his team was losing in the ninth inning or later of a winner-take-all postseason game, according to OptaSTATS.
“This is something that you practice as a kid in the backyard,” Alonso said.
The Brewers, who won the NL Central, were in the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years but still haven’t won a postseason series since they reached Game 7 of the 2018 National League Championship Series.
This loss will hurt especially. “I love this team,” manager Pat Murphy said. “I love them. I’ll never be able to duplicate 2024. It didn’t end the way we wanted to. It ended tragically, actually.”
Milwaukee seemed ready to win when pinch-hitter Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick broke a scoreless tie by hitting back-to-back homers on consecutive pitches from Jose Buttó to start the seventh inning. Rookie right-hander Tobias Myers and three Brewers relievers combined to shut out the Mets for the first eight innings, allowing only two hits.
In fact, the Mets had retired 12 straight batters before they entered the ninth against Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year who earned a save in Milwaukee’s Game 2 win on Wednesday.
But he was not at his best that night. “I’m not going to make any excuse,” Williams said. “I didn’t execute the way I needed to. They got the job done and I didn’t.”
Francisco Lindor started the ninth inning by drawing an eight-pitch walk. Mark Vientos struck out, but then Brandon Nimmo hit a sharp single on an 0-2 pitch, putting runners on the corners.
That set the stage for Alonso, who has hit 226 career home runs in six seasons but hadn’t had an extra-base hit since his homer on September 19.
“I know Devin has great stuff,” Alonso said. “I’ve seen him pitch a ton. We were teammates in the WBC (World Baseball Classic). He’s a tough AB.”
After getting ahead 3-1 in the count, Alonso hit an 86 mph changeup to the opposite field over the right-field wall. He made a “chef’s kiss” gesture with his fingers as he rounded first base, giving New York the lead.
Alonso can become a highly sought-after free agent after the World Series, so this could have been his last at-bat with the Mets if they hadn’t made it through.
Instead, he helped them advance to the next round with the biggest home run of his career.
“Pete Alonso was one swing away from people going crazy about him. And that’s what happened,” Lindor said.
Williams stayed in the game but never got back on track. Jesse Winker was hit by a pitch with two outs, stole second base, and then scored an extra run on Starling Marte’s single to right.
Winker, a former Brewer who faced boos throughout the series, shouted and slammed his helmet to the ground after sliding home.
The ninth-inning rally continued New York’s remarkable season. The Mets were 22-33 in late May but had the best record in baseball for the rest of the regular season.
They didn’t secure a playoff spot until they scored all their runs in the last two innings of an 8-7 comeback victory against Atlanta in the first game of a makeup doubleheader on Monday, the day after the regular season was supposed to end.
New York is the first team to secure a postseason spot and win a playoff series by coming back in both games after being behind in the ninth inning or later.
“With what’s transpired this season, it seems only fitting,” Nimmo said. “We seemed down and out. At the beginning of the season, we were written off. Obviously it was compounded in April and May.
Then we went on this just unbelievable run of being the best (team) in baseball for the next four months, having the team meeting, pulling ourselves up.
“And that’s kind of how this game was. This game, we were down and out for eight innings, and we just said, ‘You know what? We’re just going to keep shooting our shots until the end, and we’re going to see what happens.’”
Frelick started the bottom of the ninth with a single, but Joey Ortiz struck out and Brice Turang hit into a double play, ending the series.
“It sucks, plain and simple,” said Frelick, whose homer was his first since mid-May. “We got beat and it’s going to be something I think we all can remember as a group, though, going into next year.”
Edwin Díaz pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win. David Peterson, in his first relief appearance this season, pitched the ninth for his first major league save.
The game began as a pitchers’ duel between Myers and New York left-hander Jose Quintana. Myers pitched five shutout innings, while Quintana kept the Brewers scoreless through six.
