Sean Manaea's gem, Pete Alonso's homer lift Mets past Phillies in NLDS Game 3
Mets starting pitcher Sean Manaea reacts after closing out the top of the sixth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 at Citi Field. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
On the cusp of clinching again, the Mets are approaching a feat achieved by none of their predecessors: celebrating at Citi Field.
Sixteen years into this ballpark’s life, through a rebuild and the Five Aces and a pandemic and a change in team ownership, no version of the Mets has done what every club wants to do, form a mob on the field, deck the halls in sheets of plastic and pop bottles — in their own stadium, in front of their own fans.
These Mets are within a game of that. They beat the Phillies, 7-2, Tuesday night in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, taking a 2-games-to-1 lead in the best-of-five matchup for the right to advance to the NL Championship Series.
They can end it in Game 4, which is 5 p.m. Wednesday. Mets lefthander Jose Quintana will pitch opposite Phillies lefthander Ranger Suarez.
If needed, Game 5 would be Friday in Philadelphia.
Sean Manaea spun a seven-plus-inning masterpiece and was backed by a well-rounded offensive effort: home runs from Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker early, plus tack-on singles from Starling Marte and Jose Iglesias late.
Manaea parlayed good pitching with a bit of good fortune for one of his best starts of the season. He scattered three hits and two walks (and two hit-by-pitches) and struck out six.
The top of the first featured batted balls of greater than 106 mph by each of three hitters: Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. But all were right at defenders for outs.
In the sixth, Manaea began to teeter, issuing walks to Schwarber and Turner to put two on with no outs. That triggered a mound visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Manaea responded by getting Harper to strike out swinging — on three pitches — before Nick Castellanos’ line drive went right to second baseman Jose Iglesias for a double play. Schwarber broke the wrong way as the ball left the bag, so he was caught off second by several steps.
Manaea eased through the finish, recording the final six outs on just 13 pitches. When Edmundo Sosa managed an infield single to lead off the eighth, manager Carlos Mendoza pulled Manaea for Phil Maton. On his way back to the dugout, Manaea tipped his cap as he received a standing ovation.
Moments later, the game was in doubt for the last time. Philadelphia scratched across a couple of runs against Maton and Ryne Stanek, and the sold-out crowd of 44,093 fell silent. Alonso encouraged fans to wake up again, repeatedly raising his glove arm, a gesture to which they responded. Stanek got Bohm to fly out softly to centerfield.
It was Alonso, way back in the second inning, who first gave Citi Field a reason to get loud. He continued his mastery of the Phillies’ Aaron Nola with a home run to lead off the bottom of the second. Nola gave him a decent pitch — a fastball on the outside edge of the strike zone — and Alonso lofted it to rightfield, off the facing of the second deck.
Winker hit one even farther, about halfway up the second deck, in the fourth. He stood at the plate and watched its entire flight before beginning his jog around the bases.
The Mets opened up a far more comfortable lead with rallies in the sixth and seventh. Both times, with two outs and the bases loaded, they wound up with two-run singles. Marte came through the first time, Iglesias the second. Francisco Lindor's RBI single with two outs in the eighth plated the final run.
In the biggest game of the season, Nola, the longest-tenured Phillie, came up small, giving up four runs over five-plus innings.
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.
