Only three days earlier, the Mets had pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in franchise history. So you knew they were capable. And yet, by the ninth inning on Thursday night, there wasn’t a chance in the world it could happen again.
At least that’s how it felt after the Mets had been thoroughly overmatched by Brewers pitching for eight innings.
I mean, the baseball gods don’t allow for two miracles in the space of four days, right?
Yet somehow it happened again. And it was even more epic, if for no other reason than the ninth-inning comeback in Milwaukee on Thursday merely saved the Mets’ season, winning the Wild Card Series with a 4-2 win over the Brewers that catapults them into the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Not to mention Pete Alonso rose from the dead, figuratively anyway, hitting a three-run home run at a moment when he was very possibly one more failed at-bat away from finishing his career as a Met in the most inglorious fashion.
That only happens in the movies. And maybe not even there.
Alonso has been slumping lately, and on Thursday he was having a horrendous night, again seemingly trying too hard, chasing pitches out of the strike zone, getting himself out with his impatience.
Then, with one final chance to atone, Alonso somehow pulled himself together to have a gritty, disciplined at-bat against Devin Williams, one of the premier closers in the majors.
At the time there were runners on first and third with one out, thanks to Francisco Lindor’s walk and Brandon Nimmo’s single to right-center, only the third hit of the night for the Mets.
Suddenly there was hope.
Alonso took a strike on a changeup but then laid off two fastballs just above the top of the strike zone and didn’t chase a 2-1 down-and-in changeup.
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.
“I was looking for something out over the plate,” he told reporters, “and I wanted to stay in the big part of the field.”
That was pretty much code for, “I wasn’t going to get fooled by a 3-1 changeup.”
Of course, that’s easier said than done when Williams also has a 97 mph fastball, but Alonso did indeed stay back on a changeup and drove it over the wall in right for a home run — only the second one Williams has given up this season.
Unbelievable.
When Lindor hit his game-winner on Monday in Atlanta, as unlikely as it was, given the circumstances, it was also a guy having an MVP-caliber season.
Alonso, on the other hand, hadn’t hit a home run since Sept. 19, and that was against a position player. More to the point, the Mets’ slugger hadn’t had a truly memorable moment all season, and he seemed to be making it easy on David Stearns and the front office to move on from him, depending on his contract demands.
Now, who knows, but that story can wait. The Mets are playing baseball again, and soon against the Phillies.
At this point, it’s hard not to think this is truly a team of destiny. It’s not a fluke by any means, for they’ve had the best record in baseball since turning their season around in early June.
And, perhaps most importantly, late-inning heroics aside, they’ve got the starting pitching to match up with any team in this postseason.
Indeed, let’s not forget that the ninth-inning comeback was only possible because Jose Quintana was amazing for six innings, continuing his late-season run of brilliance in which he has given up three earned runs in his last six starts.
The bullpen may be the biggest question mark as this team gets deeper into the postseason. Jose Butto, who has been a bullpen savior after being converted as a starter, gave up two home runs in the eighth inning that could have cost the Mets the game, and maybe he can’t be used without more than a day of rest between multi-inning outings.
But in any case, Carlos Mendoza deserves credit for going all-in at that moment, even down 2-0, and bringing in Edwin Diaz in the seventh inning to get five outs and give the Mets a chance.
Finally, there was David Peterson at the end, pitching out of the bullpen for the first time this season and closing out the win with relative ease, as the left-hander continues to grow into an elite pitcher.
The more you see of this team, in fact, the more you appreciate how deep the roster is, especially on the position-player side, which is a tribute to what Stearns put together in his first season on the job.
And did it on the margins, don’t forget, in what was supposed to be a transition year with Steve Cohen re-loading for 2025.
That’s really the beauty of this season. Nothing is better for fans than a season they didn’t see coming, and the Mets are taking that whole concept to another level of late.
Two miracles in four days. Don’t ask how and why. Just let the good times roll.
