Pete Alonso went 12 games without a home run. Then he uncorked two of them Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium to help the Mets defeat the Yankees, 9-3, in the third game of the Subway Series. The Mets have a 2-1 lead in the series, which started last month with two games at Citi Field and will conclude this week with two in the Bronx.
The Amazins’ started the day 7.5 games back from an NL Wild Card playoff spot. The team knows they have a steep mountain to climb to get into playoff contention and that this is their last chance to stave off a fire sale. If they’re going to climb this mountain, they need their best players to play to carry them up.
Alonso, who now has 29 home runs, has to be one of those players.
It’s pretty wild to think that the team that boasts a historically high payroll is even contemplating selling talent at the deadline, but even wilder to think that the fate of the rest of the season is coming down to a few games, two of them against the Yankees. But for now, their hopes are alive thanks to the Mets’ core hitters. Alonso went 3-for-4 with five RBI, two home runs and a walk. Francisco Lindor went 3-for-5 and scored three times. Jeff McNeil went 2-for-4 with three RBI and a double.
With two on and two out in the third and the Mets leading 1-0, right-hander Domingo Germán threw Alonso a belt-high fastball. It was a meatball of a pitch and he did what good hitters do with meatballs. The slugger drove it over the left-field fence to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.
Alonso led off the fifth with a monster 431-foot shot to straightaway center field. It registered as 109.8 MPH off the bat.
Designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach then hit one into the bleachers. It was only his seventh of the year but his second in his last four starts. It’s been tough for the Mets to continually justify using the scuffling slugger and at one point, the situation became so dire that he was benched for a week and given a “mental break” of sorts. The Mets chose to play short-handed without him, which shows how much the front office values the analytical darling. But the good news is that Vogelbach is getting the ball in the air more often. And Alonso is 9-for-19 (.474) with five runs, two doubles, one triple, two home runs and six RBI in his last five games.
For once, the pitching cooperated. That hasn’t often been the case this season. The bullpen gave up three runs over the seventh and eighth. It bent and it cracked, but the dam didn’t fully break.
That’s the other part that’s going to have to work if the Mets are going to be able to make a run. The bullpen can’t blow leads and the starters have to go deep enough to reduce the chances of a late-game blowup.
It’s not going to be easy, but if the Mets’ biggest stars play like stars then they might have a shot.
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