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 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 lined a changeup to right field that just barely cleared the fence for the biggest home run of his career.
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.
“Nothing is guaranteed in baseball, but for me, I wanted to be in that spot,” Alonso said. “I wanted to deliver for my team. I want to contribute in a positive way.”
That’s exactly what he did, ensuring the Mets will get to the next round to face the Philadelphia Phillies, starting Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
“I was just looking for something out over the plate. I just really wanted to hit something hard through the big part of the field and I’m really happy that I capitalized,” Alonso said. “I know Devin has great stuff. I’ve seen him pitch a ton. We were teammates in the WBC. He’s a tough AB. So I’m just really happy I was able to capitalize on something out over the plate.”
It was the first time this year Williams had given up a home run on a changeup. A sellout crowd at American Family Field went silent as the reality set in.
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 given how tight the game had been played to that point.
The two teams were scoreless until right-hander Jose Butto replaced left-hander Jose Quintana in the bottom of the seventh. He 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.
Lindor set the table in the ninth by working a leadoff walk. Mark Vientos struck out, but Brandon Nimmo, on 0-2, lined a changeup to right.
That brought up Alonso, who was 0-for-3 to that point and 1-for-8 in the series with two walks. You had to wonder if it was his last at-bat in a Mets uniform. The player who electrified a fanbase and raked his way into the Mets’ record books suddenly stopped hitting home runs at the same rate this season. Still, he continued to put work in with the coaches and in the cages, and did so with a relentlessly sunny demeanor.
“It’s not easy,” hitting coach Eric Chavez told the Daily News. “It’s really not easy. I mean, he knows he’s more capable of doing bigger things.”
The Mets continued to believe that he would do bigger things. After striking out in the seventh, he went back to the dugout and told Chavez he was one swing away, and the Mets believed him.
“It was loud. It was noisy. Zero extra base hits since I don’t know when,” Mendoza said. “As you watch that game unfold and we go into the ninth inning facing one of the best closers in the game, and I’m looking to my right and I see Pete Alonso, and I was like, ‘This could be it right here.’”
Left-handed starter David Peterson came out of the bullpen for the save in the ninth with Edwin Diaz having already pitched after Butto gave up a lead. Peterson gave up a leadoff single, but struck out Joey Ortiz and induced a ground-ball double play to Brice Turang, who killed the Mets throughout the regular-season weekend series and in the Wild Card series.
Right-hander Tobias Myers was sensational for the Brewers, allowing only three baserunners through five scoreless innings. But left-hander Jose Quintana was just as good, shutting out Milwaukee through 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.
“This is who Quintana is,” Mendoza said.
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.
“It couldn’t be more fitting,” Chavez said. “He’s had a tough year, but people want him back here, he wants to be back here. That was such an unbelievable signature moment. I know he’s had some, but this is the biggest one, by far, for him in the city.”
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