MILWAUKEE — Pete Alonso had yet to have a signature moment in the postseason. After six years with the only big league team he had ever known, it looked as though the Polar Bear was about to go out with a whimper.
Instead, he sent the Mets to the NLDS with a bang.
With the Milwaukee Brewers up 2-0 in the ninth inning, Alonso came up to the plate to face closer Devin Williams with runners on the corners and one out. Williams threw strike 1 on the first pitch, before throwing three straight balls. On 3-1, Alonso hit a low liner that just barely cleared the right-field fence for the biggest home run of his career.
A sellout crowd at American Family Field went silent as the reality set in. The Mets eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers with a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the NL wild-card series. It was their first postseason series win since sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the 2015 NLCS.
The Philadelphia Phillies will host the first two games of the NLDS starting Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
The Mets went on to score once more in the ninth, with Starling Marte hitting a two-out single to score former Brewers outfielder Jesse Winker. It was a huge insurance run. Left-handed starter David Peterson came out of the bullpen for the save in the ninth with Edwin Diaz having already pitched after the Mets went down 2-0 in the seventh.
Peterson gave up a leadoff single but struck out Joey Ortiz and induced a ground-ball double play from Brice Turang, who killed the Mets throughout the regular-season weekend series and in the wild-card series.
The teams were scoreless until right-hander Jose Butto replaced left-hander Jose Quintana in the bottom of the seventh. Butto gave up back-to-back home runs to pinch-hitter Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. The two-run lead felt like 10 considering the Mets had managed only two hits up until that point, both by Francisco Lindor.
Winker was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth, but otherwise, those were the only baserunners against Tobias Myers through his five-inning outing. The Mets were anticipating the Brewers to go to their bullpen early and often, but Myers, a journeyman right-hander left exposed by Milwaukee in the Rule 5 Draft last winter, was too efficient and too effective to remove, allowing only two hits, both to Lindor, and striking out five.
Quintana was less efficient than Myers, but almost equally as effective. He gave up hard contact at the start of the game but mostly kept the ball on the ground. Two of the four hits he allowed were infield singles, and only once a runner went past second. The Brewers stole two bases, but Quintana pitched around them, blanking Milwaukee for six innings.
The veteran lefty allowed four hits and one walk, and struck out five giving the Mets as good of a chance to win as any.
The Brewers went to the bullpen in the sixth for big right-hander Trevor Megill, the brother of Mets’ starter Tylor Megill. Still, it was more of the same. Trevor Megill blanked the top of the Mets’ lineup. Nick Mears did the same. With Milwaukee leading and the crowd energized once again, right-handed ace Freddy Peralta retired the bottom of the order.
But then the Cinderella magic continued in the ninth. It’s been a wild ride for the Mets with a condensed schedule over the weekend and a Monday doubleheader in Atlanta, but down to the last inning, they showed they have enough fight to keep winning when it matters.
Alonso is set to hit free agency following the conclusion of the World Series, but for now, he’s still a member of the Mets.