Mets pull out dramatic 11-inning win over Marlins to take series

MIAMI — Near the end of the Mets' dramatic, messy, extra-innings 6-5 win over the Marlins that counted just as much as any other, Pete Alonso was so focused on trying to mash he didn’t even realize his turn at the plate was over.

In the first inning Wednesday, he put the team on the board with double to bring in Juan Soto. In the eighth, he provided a much-needed jolt with a tying two-out, two-strike, three-run home run. In the 11th, amid the Mets’ game-winning rally, he worked an eight-pitch at-bat against Xzavion Curry — a called strike, a ball, two fouls, two more balls, another foul and a final ball.

But by the time he got that last pitch, he had forgotten what it meant. Everybody else seemed to know. Jesse Winker and manager Carlos Mendoza were among those to make it clear, immediately emerging onto the field to yell as much when Alonso remained at the plate. It was time to take his base and keep the line moving. He had done his part — again.

“He’s locked in on every pitch,” Mendoza said. “I had to jump out of the dugout to tell him it was ball four. That tells you he wants to hit.”

Winker said: “It’s a great at-bat. You don’t want him to throw another pitch, you want him to go to first. But at the same time, you also want him to hit again. But we were like ‘Ball four! Ball four!’ But Pete is locked in.”

Alonso was thinking, apparently, about staying in the batter’s box so as to not risk getting called for a pitch clock violation. That would have resulted in an embarrassing strike three and a blow to the Mets’ chances.

“Once you’re in that battle like that with the pitcher, it’s like, OK, take a swing, you survived that pitch, get back ready,” Alonso said. “The last thing I want to do there is get a time violation and get strike three called. So I’m just trying to fight there. Just survive until the next pitch. And, yeah, I lost count.”

He smiled when he added that last part, the sort of thing a player is allowed to do when it all works out. Winker’s bases-loaded walk forced in the go-ahead run, and Mark Vientos’ grounder to shortstop, booted by Xavier Edwards, brought in another.

Lefthander Danny Young (three batters, one out) and righthander Huascar Brazoban (two batters, two outs) navigated the bottom of the 11th. They were the last arms available out of the bullpen. For Brazoban, it was his first career save.

All that allowed the Mets to escape with a series victory and a 3-3 record in their season-opening road trip to Houston and Miami.

They will host the Blue Jays in their home opener at 3 p.m. Friday.

“Those are games you have to win,” said righthander Clay Holmes, who allowed two runs (one earned) in 4 2/3 innings. “Sometimes they’re not always the perfect game, the cleanest game, but it’s a matter of who can come out and grind the longest.”

Mendoza said: “Crazy game. Crazy. Didn’t play well early, didn’t make a couple of plays, the at-bats on and off. I’m just glad that we found a way to get the job done.”

The series of late-innings dramatics also included the Mets throwing out a runner at the plate in each of the eighth and 10th innings (the first instance featuring a slick tag by Luis Torrens), the Mets failing to bring in Luisangel Acuna after he reached third base with no outs in the top of the 10th, and Otto Lopez driving a fly ball to deep center in the bottom of the ninth. It died shy of the wall.

And so the Mets boarded their plane, finally headed to New York after a long first week of the baseball new year (and a long spring training before that). They have Thursday off before the excitement of Friday.

That game will be more than just the first contest at Citi Field. Soto will make his home debut as a member of the Mets. And Alonso will face the Queens crowd for first time since his elongated free agency ended with him returning on a two-year, $54 million contract.

Alonso has not been in New York since Game 5 of the NLCS against the Dodgers last year, he said. That was even before the Mets’ season ended in Game 6 in Los Angeles.

Since he has an opt-out clause after 2025, this marks the start of another potential farewell tour. The welcome from fans during pregame introductions figures to be a warm one.

“I’m really excited. That moment is going to be so awesome, but it’s going to be two seconds long,” Alonso said. “You enjoy it, you get a flash of a couple of seconds to really take it in and really enjoy it. Then it’s like, OK, game time, we got a game to play, we got a job to do.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.