Pete Alonso's walk-off homer in 10th snaps Mets' 8-game losing streak
The Mets’ Pete Alonso reacts with teammates after he scored on his walk-off three-run home run against the Texas Rangers during the 10th inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
For the second straight day, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza pulled one of his rookie starters with a lead after six shutout innings.
For the second straight day, it backfired.
On Sunday, it was Nolan McLean’s turn to get the hook after a brilliant 92-pitch effort. The bullpen immediately blew a two-run lead.
But this Mets story ended differently: with a desperately needed victory.
Pete Alonso crushed a walk-off three-run home run to rightfield with none out in the 10th inning to give the Mets a 5-2 win over the Rangers and snap their season-high eight-game losing streak in dramatic 2024/Grimace/Devin Williams-in-Milwaukee/OMG fashion.
No matter what else happened in baseball on Sunday, the Mets were assured of going into Monday’s day off as the holder of the final National League wild-card spot.
“Every game now is important, but especially now in the middle of this losing streak that we were on,” Mendoza said. “It was important. It was important. I’m not going to lie. We needed that one.”
Alonso’s 34th home run, which came after the Rangers intentionally walked Juan Soto, was the Mets’ first hit with runners in scoring position. They had been 0-for-8.
“For us, there was never a doubt the entire day,” Alonso said, even though there were oodles of doubt until the ball left his bat at 110 mph and traveled 390 feet over the fence. “We obviously were motivated as ever to make it happen.”
Alonso, in his typical fashion, might have best summed up the significance of his blast when he said: “Every walk-off homer is sick. All of them are. There’s no way to rank them. Awesome, phenomenal feeling. Of course, there’s a lot of meaning to that one because of where we are as a team.”
Winning pitcher Ryne Stanek (4-6) worked out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the top of the 10th.
On Saturday, Mendoza took out Brandon Sproat after six shutout innings and 70 pitches with a 1-0 lead. The Mets went on to lose, 3-2.
Sunday’s game was scoreless until Francisco Alvarez led off the fifth with an opposite-field double and scored two batters later with a nifty headfirst slide on Soto’s grounder to first. Brandon Nimmo made it 2-0 in the sixth with his 23rd home run.
McLean allowed five hits, walked two and struck out seven to lower his ERA to 1.19, the lowest of any Mets pitcher through six starts. In three home outings, he has not allowed a run.
“I’m not a huge stat guy,” he said. “I just try to go out there and give my team the best chance to win every single time.”
Mendoza said he pulled McLean because he had an undefined pitch count (although the manager pretty much defined it as about 95 pitches) and didn’t want to push him any further. McLean has thrown between 90 and 95 pitches in each of his big-league starts.
Brooks Raley replaced McLean and gave up a leadoff single by pinch hitter Michael Helman. With two outs, he hit Josh Smith with a pitch to put the tying runs on base.
Reed Garrett walked Wyatt Langford to load the bases before allowing a tying two-run single by Joc Pederson. Garrett got out of the inning when Adolis Garcia flied out to center.
It was natural to expect the worst — until the Mets got the kind of break in the ninth that they didn’t get in the previous eight games.
Edwin Diaz, who blew the save and was the losing pitcher on Saturday, got out of a massive jam in Sunday’s ninth inning. The Rangers had a runner on third with one out and the infield in when Smith hit a looper to Francisco Lindor, who caught it on the fly and doubled off Ezequiel Duran at third to end the inning.
“I feel like those are some of the little breaks that we were not getting,” Mendoza said. “Or we were the ones on the other side . . . That’s what you need. That little break right there. It gets the guys going. We got back in the dugout and kind of like the momentum shifted.”
Notes & quotes: Mendoza said Clay Holmes will open the series against San Diego on Tuesday and said Sean Manaea will be used in relief as a “piggyback” pitcher in the middle innings . . . The Mets are 1 1⁄2 games ahead of the Giants, two ahead of the Diamondbacks and 2 1⁄2 ahead of the Reds in the battle for the third wild card.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
