Reese Kaplan -- The Mets Set a New Standard for a Magic Moment

It’s time for a history lesson for those of us who 38 years ago thought we had seen the greatest comeback moment in New York Mets history.  It was a 10th inning with the Mets losing 5-4 to the Boston Red Sox.  When they came to bat that day there was no advance runner at 2nd base.  It was simply a regular inning with the losing team needing to mount a victory against all odds, winner move forward to game 7 while losing would mean the end of the World Series and the Mets going home for a long and bitter winter rest.

The key interval of action occurred with the Mets holding runners on 1st and 3rd but already two men were out when reliever Bob Stanley took the reins for the ultimate shutdown and a celebration that rang across the 4 hour journey up in Boston.  For now what he had to do was shut down the pending threat and help the Red Sox put the iced champagne into action at Shea Stadium. 

With Mookie Wilson at the plate the Mets were indeed in a precarious situation.  He was a pesky hitter but not known as much for his bat as he was for his legs.  The peskiness came back in full as he fouled off pitch after pitch until Bob Stanley uncorked a wild pitch that sent Wilson to the ground face down as catcher Rich Gedman raced to the backstop to retrieve the wayward ball as Kevin Mitchell came home with the tying run and Ray Knight made it to second base setting up the now revised challenge for the Mets to take the victory and force a game seven.

We all know well what happened next and I have a dual autographed photo on the wall of my home office on which Mookie Wilson and errant first baseman Bill Bucker affixed their signatures in ink to commemorate what had until that time become the most incredible comeback in Mets history.  Watch and hear the Vin Scully call of exactly what happened:

Until now that whole incredible scenario was indeed the most unlikely and greatly celebrated offensive moment in the team’s history since 1962.  However, the 24 year old incident that happened to help the Mets move forward into a game seven was indeed memorable but it wasn’t the same magnitude of impact considering the Mets needed then to go ahead to play and win the next game.

On Thursday night this week the Mets entered a new do or die situation after having received six shutout innings from starting pitcher Jose Quintana the club turned to its 2024 top reliever, former starting pitcher Jose Butto.  

Unfortunately instead of the shutdown effort that lead to a 2.52 ERA for Butto he gave up a shutout-ending home run to pinch hitter Jake Bauers who was sent up in a lefty/righty strategy by Brewers manager Pat Murphy.  He was followed by right fielder Sal Frelick who only had clubbed two homers all year but turned on Butto’s first pitch to seal a back-to-back long ball attack on the normally stingy Butto. 

Or course, with the normally formidable bullpen of the Brewers these two runs could indeed be insurmountable.  The 8th inning came and went without much effort from the Mets and Edwin Diaz was used to close out the 7th and handle the 8th on his own.  That meant the Mets were going to have to mount some kind of heretofore unseen miracle in the 9th.

As the script unfolded you couldn’t ask for a better cast of characters.  The Mets would begin their attempted comeback with in-house MVP Francisco Lindor whose two hits earlier in the game represented the only ones the Mets had achieved that day.  Lindor worked out a walk on a check swing that the third base umpire agreed did not represent a strike three offer from the hitter.

Next up was Mark Vientos who had played fairly well in Milwaukee, but reliever Devin Williams got him to whiff helplessly for out number one.  That left Lindor at 1st base and stealing was not really a correct option to consider as the Mets needed to plate two and not just one run to try to tie the game. 

Brandon Nimmo had a very strange season with home runs and RBIs coming rather easily along with his usual high on base percentage but the batting average down in the .224 range as very unlike him.  Still, when needed most the sent a ball into right field for a single that Lindor was able to stretch to third base leaving the team with  the tying runs on board in the top of the 9th.

Up to the plate strode Pete Alonso for what even the announcers voice could potentially be his final at-bat in a Mets uniform with free agency pending once the World Series ended.  He was facing a guy who’d only yielded a single home run in his injury laded season, but you don’t get to a 1.25 ERA and a 43% strikeout rate by accident.

Hollywood couldn’t have written the turning point in the script any better when Alonso stepped over to swing at an outside pitch, driving it deep to right field.  Off the bat no one was sure whether it was going to be a long sacrifice fly to bring in the first of two needed runs or a double off the wall with the potential to drive in the tying run from first as well.  

Instead, everyone watched when Sal Frelick turned to face the ball clearing the right field wall and with that single swing, only the fourth hit of the game, the Mets catapulted from down 2-0 to taking a 3-2 lead.  Had it not happened, the Mets were eliminated and the Brewers were moving forward to face the Philiies in the National League Playoff series. 

Watching the stadium go from waving yellow rally towels and cheering so loudly that you couldn’t even hear to stony and dead silence.  By stark contrast the network showed what Citifield looked like at the watch party taking place there as the dancing, jumping and cheering reached epic levels.

Of course, they went on to score an insurance run and prepared to take the game into the bottom of the 9th up by a score of 4-2.  Starter David Peterson was summoned to relieve since Diaz had already thrown 39 pitches and everyone held their breath.  

When he gave up a leadoff hit, the air pretty much escaped Mets fans’ lungs.  However, he managed to fan the subsequent hitter bringing up the need for a double play ball.

Just as the announced pontificated, Peterson had done very well getting the grounders when needed and just as predicted he got a sharp grounder that Lindor handled with aplomb and he took it himself into second base, making the relay throw to first base a split second before the runner arrived.  That game ending double play sent the Mets to Philadelphia and the Brewers home for their own long and bitter winter. 

Sorry, Mookie, but Pete Alonso and company just one-upped the miracle moment standard in New York Mets history.  This afternoon the journey continues and win or lose no one will ever forget the Milwaukee 9th.