Pete Alonso, The Most Mets Player Of All, Gets His All-Time Met ...

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 03: Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets celebrates after hitting a ... [+] home run in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers during Game Three of the Wild Card Series at American Family Field on October 03, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

No star player this century has understood and embodied the Mets experience quicker than Pete Alonso, who emerged as a middle-of-the-order force and locker room leader as a rookie in 2019 while also embracing the idea of goofily enjoying the moment that is unique to Mets fans.

And as he stepped to the plate for the Mets for the 3,631st and possibly final time at 9:41 PM EST Thursday night, he was in danger of exiting without a signature postseason moment.

Not anymore.

Alonso’s 228th big league homer was his most dramatic, a three-run shot that sparked a four-run ninth inning and lifted the Mets past the Brewers, 4-2, and into the NL Division Series against the rival Phillies.

“I wanted to be in that spot,” Alonso said afterward. “I wanted to deliver for my team. I want to contribute in a positive way.”

There have been bigger at-bats in Mets history, but few drenched with as much narrative drama and dueling bits of symbolism. Every plate appearance this season has been a referendum on the future of Alonso, who had his worst season in his walk year.

His struggles in the clutch spilled over to every other situation down the stretch. Alonso entered the pivotal at-bat in a 7-for-46 slump with one homer and two RBIs since Sept. 18, a span in which he was 3-for-17 with one RBI with runners on base.

Alonso, the fourth batter of the inning, stepped to the plate because Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo, who have usurped him as franchise players this season, sandwiched singles around a strikeout by Mark Vientos, the most likely internal candidate to replace Alonso at first base if he exits this winter.

Hitting into a season-ending double play or otherwise being retired wouldn’t have undone all of Alonso’s achievements with the Mets. But it would have provided an unsettling question mark on his Mets experience as he heads into an uncertain off-season.

“As you watch that game unfold and we go into the ninth inning facing one of the best closers in the game and I’m looking to my right and I see Pete Alonso,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “And I was like ‘This could be it right here.’”

Instead, Alonso hit a historic homer that symbolized his tenure, one defined by homers hit with brute strength and celebrated with an id-filled joy that still hasn’t been entirely wrung out of him after six seasons in the New York cauldron.

Alonso, the first hitter this season to homer on a Devin Williams changeup, yelled and turned the bat over in his hands as the ball soared towards right field. Once the ball cleared the fence, Alonso made a chef’s kiss motion as he rounded first base, made the Mets’ slapping motion as he neared second base, pumped his arms and did a little shimmy upon approaching third base and finally motioned towards the Mets’ dugout as he neared home plate. The ESPN sound then cut out for several seconds, surely because of the euphoric profanities flowing from the Mets’ dugout.

“For Pete to come through that way is a dream come true for him,” Mendoza said. “And what a signature moment there.”

Alonso’s all-time Mets moment is a particularly rewarding one for a player who has been a perfect symbol of the Mets as we know them, but perhaps not for how we will eventually recognize them.

It’s hard to believe it right now, but the Mets are likely in the process of shedding their reputation as lunatic thrill-seekers who don’t know any other way to navigate a baseball season. One look at the Mets’ franchise page at Baseball Reference will remind you that’s no way to build a sustainable winner.

And Steve Cohen didn’t spend $2.4 billion to purchase the team from the Wilpons and then wait three years to hire David Stearns as his president of baseball operations to operate in business as usual fashion.

If all goes according to plan, the Mets will transform themselves into Dodgers East. Making the playoffs every season will be their birthright. They will be businesslike and dreadfully boring during regular seasons that do not matter because the Mets will be measured by how they fare in October. There will be no more four-day spans in which the Mets play two of the most incredible games in team history.

Maybe Alonso will be back as that transition takes place in 2025 and beyond. Or maybe he will play the back half of his career somewhere else and be remembered as the Mets’ bridge guy, the franchise player who was a reason to come to the park and tune in to SNY during the last two years of the rudderless Wilpon era and the first three trial-and-mostly-error years of Cohen’s tenure. But thanks to Thursday night, one of the most iconic Mets moments of all-time will always belong to the most Mets player of all.