Alonso’s night turns around with a season-saving home run for the Mets in the 9th inning

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Pete Alonso had a somewhat disappointing evening in what could be his final game for the New York Mets.

Then everything changed with one swing of the bat.

The slugger broke out of a prolonged lull by hitting a three-run home run off closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning, giving the Mets the lead for good 4:2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday in the decisive third game of their NL Wild Card Series.

In doing so, Alonso became the first major league player to hit a go-ahead home run when his team was trailing in the ninth inning or later of a victory-challenging postseason game. according to OptaSTATS.

“It’s just something you practice in the backyard as a kid,” Alonso said. “When you’re a little kid, you see scenarios like this: OK, you’re a few runs behind in the playoffs. Words can’t explain it. That can’t be true.”

Alonso and the Mets advanced to a best-of-five division series against the NL East champion Phillies beginning Saturday in Philadelphia.

The night could have turned out very differently for Alonso.

Milwaukee took a 2-0 lead in the seventh with back-to-back home runs from Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick and threatened to extend it. The Brewers had runners on second and third with two outs when William Contreras hit a foul pop toward the stands that Alonso couldn’t catch against the protective netting, giving the All-Star catcher another chance in some to drive runs.

“It’s baseball,” Alonso said. “It’s a game of failure. Sometimes that’s not the case. Especially in these big games you have to take the next step and do something positive, do your best, stay within yourself and do your best.”

The defensive play no longer mattered as Edwin Díaz struck out Contreras to end the inning. Alonso then caused the Mets to trail 2-0, but became threatening in the ninth.

Francisco Lindor started the rally with a score of 3:2. One out later, Brandon Nimmo singled to get Alonso’s base.

Alonso, 29, has played deep 226 times in his six years with New York – including a 53-homer season as a rookie in 2019.

“He’s one of the greatest home run hitters in Mets history, along with Mike Piazza,” teammate Brandon Nimmo said.

But he hadn’t done much lately. Alonso struggled late in the season and hadn’t even hit an extra base since the home run on September 19th. Nimmo said teammates kept telling Alonso that he was just one shot away from turning things around.

The pressure has been increased by the inevitable fact that Alonso is an impending free agent. When he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning, he knew it might be his last time hitting in a Mets uniform.

“And now it’s not because he did what Big Pete does,” Nimmo said.

What he did was send an opponent-field shot over the right field wall on the 3-1 conversion by Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year.

“As soon as I hit it, I thought, ‘Oh yeah, nobody’s catching that,'” Alonso said.

An excited Alonso put his fingers to his mouth in a “chef’s kiss” gesture as he rounded first base. The emotions continued to pour out as the Mets added an insurance run and then closed the door in the bottom of the ninth pitch.

“Nobody knows what this fight looks like until they go through it,” Nimmo said. “When you’re going through tough times and you haven’t had an extra base hit in a few weeks, three weeks, whatever, you just try to help the team as much as you can, but that’s just not there right now. Like I told you, you never know when this will happen. This game is really, really hard. It can happen in the blink of an eye and it can be really hard to get out of it. And it’s hard to maintain your confidence.

“Over the last three weeks, the strain on his emotions has probably increased. And the release of that, when you finally come through – and in a gigantic way for your team – it’s hard to even put it into words. I’m sure that’s why he was so emotional.”

As Alonso spoke to reporters during the champagne-soaked celebration in the Mets’ locker room, he was presented with a small pumpkin. Alonso called it his “playoff pumpkin” and explained that he and his wife found it while visiting a farm outside Milwaukee last weekend when the Mets were playing here.

“Nothing says fall like playoff baseball and pumpkins,” Alonso said.

Thanks to his clutch home run, the Mets could keep playing until Halloween.

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