In one of the craziest playoff games you will ever see, the New York Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 at American Family Field in the win-or-go-home Wild Card round Game 3 to punch their ticket to the next series. They did it with some ninth-inning heroics that included Pete Alonso hitting a clutch three-run blast against top closer Devin Williams to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
Mets starter Jose Quintana gifted his team six brilliant, scoreless innings from the mound, but Tobias Myers was equally dominant for Milwaukee.
The Mets’ bullpen nearly blew the game
The minute the Mets were forced to go to their bullpen, however, things started to unravel. Jose Butto conceded consecutive solo home runs to Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick and they fell into a 2-0 hole in the seventh.
Edwin Diaz was called upon by Mets manager Carlos Mendoza to clean up a mess in the seventh and, after two walks, he did just that.
Diaz silenced the Brewers bats in the eighth, too, giving the Mets an opportunity to come back in the ninth frame and boy, did they do that.
Against Williams, Francisco Lindor worked a walk and Brandon Nimmo singled to put runners in the corners with one out (Mark Vientos had struck out after Lindor).
Pete Alonso won it for the Mets
That set up Alonso’s at-bat. It was truly a thing of legends:
The ‘Polar Bear’ handled it like a pro, and waited on Williams’ vaunted changeup to pounce.
It was a hard line drive that barely made it out in right field, and the Mets clubhouse turned into pandemonium.
Starling Marte added a much-needed fourth run on an RBI single, and then David Peterson earned the save after working around a baserunner to solve the ninth inning. The Mets celebrated in the visitors’ dugout, and will now take on the Philadelphia Phillies in the Division Series.
