In what could have been his very last at-bat as a member of the New York Mets, Pete Alonso instead said, “Not so fast.”
The Mets entered the ninth inning down 2-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers in the decisive Game 3 of their NL Wild Card series on Thursday. Milwaukee looked like they were cruising their way to victory in front of their home crowd, especially after two huge back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning blew the roof off the building (video here).
But Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor kept the team afloat in the ninth with a leadoff walk, and then Brandon Nimmo delivered with a base hit two batters later. That brought the hulking Alonso up to the plate against two-time All-Star closer Devin Williams of the Brewers. With his team’s season on the line, Alonso delivered in an enormous way.
He crushed a 3-1 changeup from Williams the opposite way, and it ended up in the seats for a go-ahead home run for the Mets. In the blink of an eye, the Mets suddenly went from down 2-0 to up 3-2.
PETE ALONSO!!!!!!!!!!!!! #POSTSEASON pic.twitter.com/LzgpxTWUzN
— MLB (@MLB) October 4, 2024
The four-time All-Star Alonso, who will be a free agent after the season, had not looked great up to that point of the series against Milwaukee and even had a brutal blooper in Game 2 on Wednesday. But he came up clutch when the Mets needed him the absolute most and did so to boot against the lights-out Williams, who had a 1.25 ERA during the regular season and only gave up one other homer all year.
