MLB playoffs 2024: Pete Alonso ends home run drought, sends Mets to NLDS with 3-run homer in wild-card Game 3

MILWAUKEE — No player needed a big moment more than Pete Alonso.

Throughout the Mets’ incredible September run to reach the postseason, including their wild doubleheader in Atlanta earlier this week, and the first two games of their NL wild-card series vs. Milwaukee, they’d gotten plenty of big hits. But none had come from their star first baseman.

In fact, nothing seemed to be going right for Alonso going into his ninth-inning at-bat in Thursday’s Game 3. His timing looked off; he didn’t look comfortable in the batter’s box. Frankly, with the Mets’ season on the line, there were probably other guys fans wanted up in that moment.

But in baseball, especially in the postseason, the moment finds you.

“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,’” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after his squad’s 4-2 victory.

The Mets had been dealt one hell of a haymaker going into the ninth inning. Not only did they trail after back-to-back homers in the seventh put Milwaukee up 2-0, but with All-Star closer Devin Williams slated to close out the ninth, the obstacles and the pressure were starting to mount.

But as we’ve seen all year, there’s no quit in these Mets. Francisco Lindor got things going with a base hit, a Brandon Nimmo single put runners on the corners, and the stage was set for Alonso.

“I wanted to be in that spot,” he said afterward. “I wanted to deliver for my team. I wanted to contribute in a positive way.”

Trailing by two, the Mets needed a big swing from the man nicknamed “Polar Bear.” But going into the at-bat, Alonso hadn’t homered since Sept. 19. Worse, in a string of 41 at-bats in that span, he didn’t even have an extra-base hit.

“It’s been hard for him the whole year,” Mendoza said. “People talk about wanting more from Pete, and you look at his numbers — it’s a pretty good year. Obviously, the standards and the expectations from him are, like, he should hit 45, 50 homers every year, and it’s not easy.

“He’s handled it better than anybody, and he wants it as much as anybody.”

And so, just as you’d script it, in what could have been the final at-bat of his Mets career, Alonso worked a 3-1 count and then delivered the biggest swing of his life, drilling a fastball deep toward the right-field wall. As the ball left the field, it sent New York’s dugout into pandemonium as a stunned Milwaukee crowd watched in silence.

“Alonso, while he may have been quiet this series, that’s a huge swing,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said afterward. “That’s the way it is.”

Alonso has hit 226 home runs in the major leagues; since 2019, only Aaron Judge has hit more. Over the past few weeks, however, Alonso had racked up only a tally of strikeouts. His dropped pop-up earlier in Game 3 and even his tripping over his bat in Game 2 seemed like a microcosm of the way things were going.

But with one swing, Alonso made it so that the previous two weeks — and even the previous two hours — didn’t matter. When the Mets needed a hero, their first baseman found a way to end his power outage, sending his team to the NLDS, where they’ll face the Phillies beginning in Game 1 on Saturday.

“I’m just happy I could come through for my team right there,” Alonso said of the game-winning swing. “It’s a really special moment.”

Added Mendoza: “For Pete to come through there is a dream come true for him, and what a signature moment there. And here we are, moving to the next round.”

As Alonso rounded first base, the entire Mets team came storming onto the field.

“It means the world,” Alonso said afterward. “It doesn’t matter if it’s me or somebody else — I know everybody in our clubhouse, I know everyone in the organization has each other’s backs.

“That’s part of the fabric of why we’ve been able to bounce back and earn a playoff spot and then move on to the next level. … That’s our identity.”

If you want to know what improbable success looks like, look no further than the 2024 Mets, who’ve made improbable their middle name this season.

Becoming one of the hottest teams in baseball after going 9-19 in May? Rattling off a 65-40 record over the final four months of the season to surge into the postseason? Improbable.

Winning a must-win contest after being down to their final two outs, against one of the game’s best closers? Getting the winning hit from a struggling star who hadn’t hit a homer in weeks? Improbable.

Mendoza reflected postgame on the team meeting the Mets players held at the end of May — at what turned out to be their lowest point of the season and the crucial turning point.

“They got together in the famous team meeting, and … they backed up those words by going out there and pushing each other, holding each other accountable, believing in themselves,” he said.

“Win or lose, the same mentality, day after day. It happened, man.”

For a while Thursday, it appeared that the Mets’ magical season was coming to a bitter end. But then, like they’ve done all season, they found just a bit more magic.

“It’s a really special group,” Alonso said. “How far we’ve come this year … not a lot of people thought we’d be at this spot right now. It’s just really special to move on.”