Your Friday morning dose of Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Never tell me the odds. Down by two runs in the top of the ninth in an elimination game with one of the best closers in baseball on the mound for the Brewers, the Mets rallied for four runs to take the lead in stunning fashion and win the Wild Card series. Pete Alonso’s three-run home run to right field turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead, one of the biggest home runs in franchise and baseball postseason history.
Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Faith and Fear in Flushing, Newsday, MLB.com, The Athletic, New York Daily News, New York Post
Mike Vaccaro writes that the home run was Pete Alonso’s forever moment, and David Lennon writes about Alonso’s complete turnaround after his recent struggles.
Jesse Winker enjoyed a big moment as he scored a very important insurance run in the ninth and slammed his helmet in celebration.
Jose Quintana made a fantastic start that kept the Mets very much in the game with six scoreless innings of work.
After José Buttó struggled and Edwin Díaz steered the ship through the rest of the seventh and all of the eighth, David Peterson came on and got his first career save in the ninth.
Here are New York City’s tabloid back pages featuring the Mets’ win.
Alonso and his wife picked pumpkins this week, and the slugger introduced the Mets’ playoff pumpkin to the public during the Mets’ clubhouse celebration after the win.
While they were in the field in the bottom of the eighth, Jose Iglesias told Alonso that the first baseman was going to hit a home run in the ninth.
Brandon Nimmo lost his grandmother about an hour before Game 3 started.
Alonso believes in the Mets’ ability to sustain success under Steve Cohen and David Stearns.
Kodai Senga is in the conversation for the Mets’ NLDS roster.
Before the game, Anthony DiComo wondered if it would be Pete Alonso’s final act as a Met. The answer, Tony, was hell no.
The Mets became the first team to ever play five games that included three postseason games in a four-day span.
With the Mets set to face the Phillies in the playoffs for the first time ever, Tyler Kepner writes about ten of the most memorable moments in the rivalry between the two teams.
The Mets are set to discuss their starting pitching plans for the series against the Phillies today, but Tylor Megill comes into today as the leading candidate to start Game 1.
The Athletic staff previewed the upcoming NLDS matchup.
Around the National League East
Dedicated to remaining a joke of a franchise, the Marlins are firing a bunch of people.
Around Major League Baseball
The Reds are hiring Terry Francona, who not long ago seemed set on retiring for good, as their new manager.
Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue
Mets Morning News and the news about the Mets’ lineup kept everyone talking yesterday.
This Date in Mets History
The Mets won Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers on this date in 2006, the game that included the extraordinarily moment where Paul Lo Duca tagged two Dodgers out at home plate on the same play.