☀️ Good Morning:
When the Mets fell 11 games below .500 and Jorge López used his glove as a white flag by tossing it into the stands, and the season felt over before Memorial Day, the Mets said, No it isn’t.
When the Braves ruined a six-run rally to regain the lead in a must-win doubleheader and the scribes had already drafted a story on how the Amazins had failed again in Atlanta and the season was truly over, the Mets said, No it isn’t.
When every pundit and Mets fan from South Jersey to Connecticut, on every talk show and bar stool where the blue & orange congregate, wanted Pete Alonso’s head, remained convinced he couldn’t deliver in a big moment, his time as a Met truly over, with one swing, he said, No it isn’t.
The Mets’ season is not over. It might be the very beginning of a magical run through October that only a franchise with black cats and Ya Gotta Believe banners and miracle comebacks could orchestrate.
Pete Alonso was lost, you could see it in his face, the deep breaths, the I-want-this-so-badly-but-I-can’t-make-it-happen look. It felt like Joe Biden was still running for re-election the last time Alonso had an extra base hit. He had tripped over his own bat grounding into a double play. He was swinging at ridiculous pitches. His last play of the season and possibly as a Met at first base was trending towards being a dropped pop up.
Surely, when he stepped to the plate with two deep breaths and a last chance at redemption, the most likely outcome was for him to make one, if not both, of the final outs by striking out or grounding into a double play.
The baseball screenwriters had already written an improbable story on this night. In a tie game, in the seventh inning, in only the fourth winner-take-all game out of 131 to remain scoreless that long, the Brewers struck lightning twice, the first a pinch-hit home run by a .199 hitter, the second an almost identical blast by a player who had hit two home runs in 524 plate appearances this year.
That was going to lead SportsCenter. That was what the newspaper articles and blogs and social media posts would be talking about. That, and the failure of Pete Alonso.
And then the Polar Bear reminded us why this game of baseball is so different from life in that it can make fairy tales come true.
We’ve all watched baseball movies growing up, stretching our minds to believe actual Angels could take the outfield or a young boy could fall on his arm in a way that turned him into a major-league pitcher or a rich grandfather could pass on a baseball team to his grandson and he could become manager. In each of those stories, imagination reached its limit by the end, the Angels gave way to the actual players, the boy lost the magic in his arm, an acting Ken Griffey Jr. made a leaping catch to steal a game-winning home run from the lead character.
Only in real life can a story like we witnessed last night come true. Even in the movies, they would have written a different ending.
Francisco Lindor hit one of the biggest home runs in Mets history. And somehow, incomprehensibly, Pete Alonso hit a bigger one only three days later.
It’s not only an historic home run for the Mets, it is one of the most dramatic home runs in baseball history. It is the first go-ahead home run by a trailing team in the ninth inning or later of a winner-take-all postseason game.
“It felt like a tragedy,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
🍎 The Mets move on to play the Phillies, a team separated by only 120 miles of interstate highway and a few lines in the divisional standings for the past 63 years, and yet somehow, meeting each other for the first time in the postseason. If you thought the watch party at Citi Field looked like Madison Square Garden after Larry Johnson’s 4-point play, just wait for how the crowd is going to look next week.
We will have plenty of time to talk about the Phillies series in the coming days, so let’s soak this one up with our immediate reaction on our latest podcast and a break down of the key moments that led to the Mets’ improbable win.
🎧 Mets Fix Podcast
Blake, Peter and JB try to give thought to a game that left fans speechless. On a night Pete Alonso could have written his final chapter as a Met, he scripted a fairytale moment.
Make sure you’re subscribed to the Mets Fix Podcast on your favorite platform (Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud).
🍎 Winning Plays
Pete Alonso’s dramatic home run doesn’t happen without the key contributions below.
❶ Francisco Lindor’s walk to lead off the ninth. I said in the chat when it happened, this is the type of at-bat that precedes something great. Down two runs, facing an elite closer, Lindor fell behind 1–2, before working the count full, fouling off multiple pitches and drawing a key walk. He used power to catapult the Mets on Monday, he used a keen eye and patience to help them script another comeback on Thursday.
❷ The turning point of the game came in the seventh inning after the Brewers had bolted ahead with back-to-back homers. Edwin Díaz suddenly found himself on the mound and it felt like the wheels might come off at any moment. Milwaukee had runners on second and third, one measly hit, a little dunker to right field and it could be 4–0, which would have felt like 99-0 at the time. Díaz bore down and struck out the final batter to preserve the two-run deficit. At that moment, it felt like the Mets were given a slight jolt of life. If they were lying unconscious, Díaz’s escape in the seventh and shutdown eighth were like pumps of CPR.
❸ How can we go this long without talking about Jose Quintana? He gave his team everything they could have possibly asked for, and then some. There’s something about his demeanor on the mound, which he carries with him back to the dugout and into the clubhouse, and uses as a strength in high-intensity environments. In a do-or-die contest, nerves were not going to get the best of this veteran.
Quintana threw his four-seam fastball 25 times and didn’t get a single swinging strike or called strike. That would suggest he was hit hard, but he wasn’t. He used his four-seamer to offset a strong dosage of sinkers and to later set up his curveball and change up, both picking up the slack for earning strikes by getting hitters to chase well below the strike zone.
As Pat Murphy pulled his starter after five dominant innings, worried about the Time Through the Order Penalty, Carlos Mendoza was able to stick with Quintana, a consistent performer even after a batter sees him multiple times.
❹ You can always use insurance. After Alonso’s heroics, the Mets didn’t stop there. They knew Díaz was toast, that they would be asking a starter who hadn’t pitched in relief in over a year to close this one out. They needed to tack on an extra run.
Leave it to Milwaukee Public Enemy No. 1 Jesse Winker to lean into a pitch and reach first base with two outs. He would then steal second, setting up Starling Marte for a clutch opposite-field hit on a 1–2 pitch.
❺ Closing it out. Given a lead on one of the most unbelievable moments in franchise history, David Peterson had to make sure it counted for a win. Pitching in relief for the first time since July 2023, he needed only eight pitches (seven strikes) to retire the Brewers in order and clinch the series finale to send New York to the NLDS against the Phillies.
🎩 TIPPING HIS PITCHES? Brewers closer Devin Williams had allowed one home run since returning to the mound from a long IL stint in late July. He had thrown more than 2,300 changeups — The AirBender — in his regular season and postseason career, only six had been sent over the wall. His 1.25 ERA and 43.2% K rate this season suggested nobody was going to beat him in the ninth inning. Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Jesse Winkers and Starling Marte proved that theory wrong. Was it partly because Williams was tipping his pitches?
Williams: “It could have been better but it wasn’t the worst pitch I’ve ever thrown,” Williams said of the fateful changeup. “I wanted to go away with it and I got it there, but it was a good piece of hitting.”
📻 HOWIE NAILS IT: If you somehow haven’t heard this yet, make sure you listen to Howie’s call of Alonso’s home run.
🐻❄️ POLAR MOMENT: Teams are 39–2 when leading and entering the eighth inning with a chance to clinch a playoff series, according to ESPN Research. Those two losses happened on consecutive days: the Mets on Wednesday, the Brewers on Thursday.
Before the latest miracle happened, Jose Iglesias spoke it into existence. He told Alonso before the bottom of the eighth inning to “be ready, because next inning, you’re going to hit a home run.”
🎃 GOOD LUCK CHARM: Move over Grimace, the Mets now have a playoff pumpkin. Alonso said he bought it in Milwaukee with his wife at a farm outside of the city. “Nothing’s more Fall than playoff baseball and pumpkins,” he said.
🗓️ NEXT UP: After using David Peterson in relief, Tylor Megill is the leading candidate to start Game 1 opposite of Zack Wheeler, per Anthony DiComo.
Peterson skipped his regular bullpen session on Wednesday to be available to pitch in the final two games of the Wild Card Series. He only threw eight pitches. He could be available in some capacity on Saturday. The Mets could then return to Luis Severino on regular rest on Sunday, setting things up for Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana to pitch Games 3 and 4 at Citi.
🇯🇵 SENGA RETURN? The Mets have until Saturday morning to decide on their roster for the NLDS. It’s not impossible for Kodai Senga to be on it. Club officials are having “ongoing discussions” on whether to activate the right-hander, according to The Athletic. He would be a short option out of the pen, or possibly as an opener.
🙏 SAD NEWS: Brandon Nimmo found out just before the game that his grandmother, Claudine Nimmo, had passed away.
🕷️ Find headlines for all of your favorite teams at SportSpyder, the number one source for sports news links.
◾️ The Dodgers will start Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 1 against the Padres, flipping the original order that had Jack Flaherty getting the ball in Game 1, who will now get it in Game 2.
◾️ Future Hall-of-Fame manager Terry Francona will come out of retirement to manage the Reds, according to ESPN.
◾️ The Arizona Diamondbacks confirmed pitching coach Brent Strom, assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson and bullpen coach Mike Fetters will not return in those roles next season.
🔗 Facing the abyss again, these Mets showed how the improbable has become probable, by Howie Kussoy, NY Post ($): “The Mets had been held scoreless in 15 straight innings. They entered the ninth inning of last night’s deciding NL Wild Card game without a runner reaching third base, without any runner but Francisco Lindor reaching base. The Mets had nothing left — but another improbable, all-time moment in franchise history.”
🔗 Pete Alonso, Mets prove once again anything is possible during this miracle run, by John Harper, SNY: “So now with a 3-1 count, Alonso didn’t get overanxious, as he has in so many at-bats in recent days. In part because he said he had seen a lot of Williams, partly when they were teammates in the World Baseball Classic, and was well aware the right-hander would throw his signature changeup in any count.”
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First, I have to give props to you Jeffrey. Early on in the chat you put the good vibes out there that Pete would do exactly what he did. If this somehow becomes a trend I’m gonna say you’ve been outed as some kind of time traveler or alien. I have been enjoying the chat during the games but I’d enjoy it more if us Mets fans would be more positive instead of haters at the drop of a hat. What we witnessed last night was a first in baseball history and the top one or two HR’s in franchise history. It’s even more fitting that Lindor AND Nimmo both made the plays before that to make it possible. Having a night to sleep on it I can’t fault Mendy for any of the moves he made. Butto was roughed up but who else do you want bridging the gap to Diaz? Maton? Young? Otto? He’s been a stud all year long. They just got two swings on him. Happily we will forget about what happened to him and celebrate forever what Pete did getting us to the division series. Pete getting this done was epic. Hopefully this is the monkey off his season long back that allows him to have that extra second again. We all know Pete can carry us on his back and if this is what breaks him out look out baseball. What a night from Q. He shut down the Brewers and kept them off balance all night. He is a big time pitcher. Worth another contract in my opinion. We are playing with house money now. Everything since beating Atlanta has been gravy but does anyone want this to end? I love this team. They pull for each other and pick each other up. They care about us fans and right now are giving us an October to remember. Wow. OMG right? Let’s go Mets!
A moment in Mets histiry that will never be forgotten. At my age i have seen them all. For Pete Alonzo to execute this moment makes it pretty special. His teammates and manager all had his back (based on post game interviews) even though a huge portion of the fanbase didn't. Good for Pete and hope he is with the Mets a long time ! Tip of the antlers goes to Wink for basically saying F. U. to the crowd after his slide home. Another one goes to Q - who pitched lights out. Of course Lindor gets one just for him being him ! LETS GO METS !!!