It is hard to imagine where he Mets would be without Pete Alonso.
The rookie slugger, who declared Tuesday's game against the Padres ad a "must win," snapped the Mets four-game losing streak with a four RBI day at the plate, including a go-ahead ninth inning two-run home run off the facade of the Toyota building at petco Park in the 7-6 win.
"It was awesome. Just really pumped," Alonso said after the game." Got a pitch to drive., capitalized on it and to put us up like that felt really good."
The Mets entered the game in an offensive funk. They scored three runs or fewer in each of their last six games and desperately needed to find a way to score runs.
"It's really nice that we won after losing four in a row. Today was a really big character test for us," Alonso said. "This was a really good team win. We had contributions from a lot of guys. Really good team win."
Yet it was Alonso who came through late in the game again. He has shown a knack for delivering when the moment is big. He has a team leading 11 home runs and 31 RBI with 20 of them coming in the seventh inning or later.
It has reached the point where it is almost expected he will do something.
"I felt like that was gonna happen," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. " He's a really good hitter and he's going to make some adjustments. He's going to have some bad nights and he's going to rebound like he did today. It's something you expect when he goes up there. We talked about it in spring training. He's a dangerous hitter, you feel like something dangerous is gonna happen and it did tonight."