The 2024 Mets still had some magic left in them. Facing down his potential final at-bat as a Met, Pete Alonso pulled victory from the jaws of defeat to send the Mets to the NLDS.
You thought Monday’s Game 1 victory that sent the Mets to the postseason was a stunner? Tonight, the 2024 Mets said, “Hold our beer. We aren’t done yet.” The Mets and Brewers were scoreless through six innings in a winner-take-all Game 3, as both starting pitchers delivered for their respective teams. The Brewers got the job done against Mets’ bullpen in the seventh, going up 2-0 on a pair of solo homers. It seemed like the Mets’ postseason run was finished. But with their backs against the wall once again, the Mets rallied for four runs in the ninth off Brewers closer Devin Williams to pull out an absolutely wild 4-2 win to advance to the NLDS.
José Quintana was brilliant for the Mets in his most important outing of the season. He shut the Brewers out for six innings, striking out five batters and walking only one. He scattered four hits and only allowed one extra base hit—a leadoff double by Gary Sánchez in the second. After Quintana issued a two-out walk in the fifth and then finally retired Blake Perkins on the ninth pitch of the at-bat to end the inning, it seemed like he might be done, but Carlos Mendoza trusted his starter with another inning and Quintana rewarded that trust with a 1-2-3 sixth, striking out the final two batters he faced.
Meanwhile, Tobias Myers was just as dominant for the Brewers over his five innings of work, over which he threw just 66 pitches. He struck out five batters, walked none, and yielded just two hits, both of which were to Francisco Lindor. Those two hits by Lindor were the only hits the Mets would manage until the ninth, as they were simply dominated by superior pitching. Trevor Megill pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning with a strikeout and Nick Mears twirled a dominant seventh, also retiring all three Mets in order complete with two strikeouts.
José Buttó, who pitched two scoreless innings for the Mets in their Game 1 victory, took the mound for the bottom of the seventh and gave up two consecutive solo homers to pinch hitter Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. And though it was just a two-run deficit, on a night when the pitching was so dominant, it certainly felt like an immediate dagger to the Mets’ season. After finally getting the first out of the inning, Buttó made way for Edwin Díaz, who worked around a couple of walks to limit the damage to two runs. Díaz went on to pitch a scoreless eighth as well, striking out two batters.
Game 1 starter Freddy Peralta pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Francisco Lindor strode into the batter’s box in the top of the ninth against Brewers closer Devin Williams with the Mets staring down the face of elimination. Lindor had a brilliant at-bat, working out an eight-pitch walk to bring the tying run to the plate. Williams then struck out Mark Vientos on a high fastball for the first out, but then down in the count 0-2 Brandon Nimmo laced a single to right. In a season that has transpired like a movie, it only feels right that Pete Alonso, who had been struggling all night—and all month—came to the plate in this moment. If things went down the way almost everyone in the ballpark and watching on television thought they were going to go down, it would have quite possibly been Pete Alonso’s last at-bat as a Met. Well, now he’s at least going to have a few more. Like a page straight from a fairy tale, the Polar Bear launched a 3-1 pitch over the right field wall to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. You just can’t script it better than that, folks.
What’s more, the Mets added an insurance run. With two outs, Jesse Winker was hit by a pitch for the second time on the evening. He stole second base and scored on a Starling Marte single to give the Mets a little breathing room. That chased Williams from the game in favor of Joe Ross, who put the inning to bed by getting Tyrone Taylor to fly out to end the rally. But you could hear a pin drop in American Family Field as David Peterson took the mound for the bottom of the ninth to close the game for the Mets. Sal Frelick singled to lead off the inning to bring the tying run to the plate and give the Brewers a shot, but Joey Ortiz struck out swinging and Peterson got Brice Turang, who had plagued the Mets all series long, to ground into a double play to end what was truly one of the most stunning games of baseball I have ever watched in my almost three decades as a Mets fan.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Fangraphs
Big Mets winner: Pete Alonso, +55.6% WPA
Big Mets loser: José Buttó, -29.2% WPA
Mets pitchers: +18.1% WPA
Mets hitters: +31.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Hm, I wonder. Tough guess. It’s Pete Alonso’s go-ahead homer in the ninth, +64.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jake Bauers’ pinch hit go-ahead homer in the seventh, -20.4% WPA