Abhay Singh
The New York Mets defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 on Thursday night to win the NL Wild Card Series. Pete Alonso hit the game-winning three-run home ball off closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning.
The Mets went to the postseason for the first time since winning the 2015 National League pennant, thanks to their most recent exciting comeback in the pivotal Game 3 against Milwaukee.
They will now play the NL East champion Phillies in a best-of-five Division Series, which gets underway in Philadelphia on Saturday.
It will be the first postseason meeting between the longtime rivals
It will be the first postseason matchup between the longtime rivals. During the regular season, New York had a 6-7 record against the Phillies and ended up six games behind them in the division standings.
The Brewers, who are playing in the postseason for the sixth time in the previous seven years, have not won a postseason series since they advanced to Game 7 of the NL Championship Series in 2018. This will be an especially terrible loss for the series.
After José Buttó allowed Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick to open the seventh inning with back-to-back home runs, the game looked to be in Milwaukee’s hands. Through the first eight innings, Tobias Myers and three relievers had combined for a two-hit shutout.
When the Mets began the ninth inning against Williams, the two-time NL reliever of the year who had recorded the save in Milwaukee’s Game 2 victory on Wednesday, twelve straight Mets had been retired. But this evening, he wasn’t the same guy.
On a 3-2 pitch outside, Francisco Lindor began the ninth inning by walking. Brandon Nimmo singled to put runners at the corners after Mark Vientos struck out.
Williams remained in the game but never regained his footing
That brought up Alonso, who hasn’t gone deep since September 19 despite having 226 career home runs in six seasons. Alonso led off with a 3-1 count and then hit a 3-1 changeup over the right field wall.
As he rounded first and handed the Mets the lead, he made the “chef’s kiss” motion with his fingers to his mouth. Williams continued playing, but he was never able to stabilize himself.
With two outs, Jesse Winker was hit by a pitch, stole second, and Starling Marte’s single to right scored an insurance run. After sliding across the plate, Winker—a former Brewer who faced unwelcome jeers throughout the series—screamed and hurled his helmet to the ground.
The New York epic season continued with the comeback in the ninth inning. Despite having a 22-33 record at the end of May, the Mets performed admirably over the remainder of the regular season. It wasn’t until they scored all of their runs in the last two innings of an 8-7 victory over Atlanta in the first game of a doubleheader on Monday, the day after the regular season was meant to end, that they secured a postseason berth.
After Joey Ortiz struck out and Brice Turang hit into a double play, Frelick singled to start the bottom of the ninth inning, ending the series.
Edwin Díaz earned the victory with a scoreless 1 2/3 inning of relief work. In his season debut as a reliever, David Peterson worked the ninth to record his first major league save.
The contest began as a pitchers’ duel between Jose Quintana of New York and Myers. Myers threw five scoreless innings and Quintana kept the Brewers scoreless for the first six.
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