Mets' Pete Alonso Reacts to GW HR: 'I'm So Happy I Could Come Through for the Team'

New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso entered Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers with just five hits (all singles) in his previous 11 contests. Thursday wasn't going so well either through eight innings as Alonso went 0-for-3 and dropped a pop-up on a seventh-inning foul ball.

But Alonso delivered in the ninth, smacking a three-run, one-out homer to put the Mets up 3-2 en route to a 4-2 win.

Afterward, an elated Alonso spoke with reporters in the clubhouse amid the team's champagne-soaked celebration (h/t MLB.com's Anthony DiComo).

"It was a tough-fought game all the way through, and it's two really good teams going at it in the postseason," Alonso said. "It was gonna come down to that last inning there. Man, just really special. I'm so happy I could come through for the team right there."

Alonso also credited his teammates and the organization afterward.

Alonso, an impending free agent, very well could have been ending his Mets career on a down note. His .788 OPS was the lowest mark of his six-year career, and his 172 strikeouts were his highest mark since his 2019 rookie year. Alonso smacked 53 homers then alongside a .941 OPS.

But Alonso authored a massive hit that kept the Mets' storybook season alive and turned him into an October legend.

And in a year of Grimace and Candelita's OMG, a new Mets hero has emerged in the form of a playoff pumpkin, courtesy of Alonso.

Alonso and the rest of the Mets hope the power of the pumpkin helps them against the NL East champion Phillies, who will host New York for Game 1 of their best-of-five National League Division Series on Saturday afternoon.