LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pete Alonso seemed stunned this season had ended and perhaps his time with the New York Mets.
“I’m just kind of shell-shocked that the season’s over, because once you get on this postseason run, you kind of don’t really think that it’s going to end ever because we overcame so much and we perform really well in big spots,” Alonso said after the Mets were eliminated Sunday night with a 10-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in NL Championship Series Game 6.
Alonso hit .273 with four homers and 10 RBIs in the postseason. After earning $20.5 million this year, the first baseman is eligible for free agency for the first time and turns 30 in December.
“I love this team. I love this organization. This fanbase has treated not just myself, but my family so, so well,” Alonso said. “I love New York. I love this team. I love playing in Queens. This group is really special and the memories that we’ve created together are just, like, wow. This is why we play baseball, to be able to get to have that togetherness, to be able to go far, face adversity and overcome it. … I want more and more moments like this.
New York started the season 0-5 and was 22-33 before the late-May players’ only meeting that followed the Dodgers series sweep at Citi Field. The Mets turned around their season and finished 89-73, earning the NL’s final wild card spot with a win at Atlanta on the day after the regular season was scheduled to end. They rallied in the ninth inning of Game 3 to win an NL Wild Card Series, then upset NL East champion Philadelphia in the Division Series to reach the LCS for the first time since 2015.
It’s not easy to come through so much adversity, but we kept finding ways to get the job done,” first-year manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this series. Now we’re going home. But, like I said, this should be our expectations moving forward every year, we should be playing games deep into October.”
In the fourth season after Steve Cohen bought the Mets from the Wilpons, New York led the major leagues with a $332 million payroll and is line to pay a $96 million luxury tax.
