Pete Powers Mets To Move On After Winning In Milwaukee

 

The Mets celebrate in Milwaukee. @Mets.

Pete Alonso has done everything possible in his time with the Mets, starting with when he won the Rookie of the Year award through climbing the Mets all-time lists with 226 home runs, but he needed that one signature moment in a massive spot to define it.

That came on Thursday night, when he came up with two runners on and one out in the ninth inning and the Mets trailing 2-0 in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The only runs in the game to that point came when Milwaukee got a pair of solo home runs from ex-Yankee Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick off Jose Butto in the seventh inning.

This was crushing, as it came after Jose Quintana threw six shutout innings to start it off for the Mets, as he scattered four hits and a walk, while striking out five.

Butto was pulled with one out in the seventh, after he retired the required third batter he had to face, and they went to closer Edwin Diaz to keep it there.

Diaz threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings to keep it a two-run game, as he didn't allow a hit, just a pair of walks, and struck out three.

The Brewers turned to their closer, Devin Williams, who had 14 saves in the regular season, for the ninth.

Francisco Lindor opened the inning with a walk, which always sets a tone for an inning like this.

Williams then struck out Mark Vientos, but then Brandon Nimmo laced a single to right field to give the Mets runners at first and third bases. 

In an inning that started to have an inevitability, a destiny, to it for the Mets, as so much of the past four months have, it would be Alonso coming to the plate.

After taking a called strike, Williams then let the count get to 3-1, meaning he would have to challenge Alonso or else load the bases. This only added to the predictability of what was about to happen.

Alonso crushed an 86-MPH changeup to right field for a three-run bomb, and suddenly, it was the Mets up 3-2.

The Mets would tack on another run, as Jesse Winker reached on a hit-by-pitch, stole second base, and scored on a single by Starling Marte that made it 4-2. That run was so crushing it may as well have been 40-2.

David Peterson, who has pitched by far the best baseball of his career lately, and won on Sunday in Milwaukee to line up them clinching a playoff berth on Monday in Atlanta, came on to close it out.

Frelick, who homered in the seventh, opened with a single, but Peterson then struck out Joey Ortiz.

That settled him down, and Peterson then got Brice Turang to ground one to Lindor, who tagged second and fired to Alonso at first for the game-clinching double play.

The Mets will now face the Philadelphia Phillies in the Division Series starting Saturday afternoon.

It also means, perhaps even more significantly, that Mets fans will get to see Alonso, a pending free agent, again at Citi Field on Tuesday night for Game 3.

Incredibly, that will have been 16 days and five road series - Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to Milwaukee to Philadelphia - for the Mets since what could have been Alonso's final home game on September 22, which was ironically against the Phillies.