Mets’ NL Wild Card Series Game 3 pitching plan pays off

MILWAUKEE — Pete Alonso’s game-winning home run in the ninth inning of National League Wild Card Series Game 3 on Thursday did not land particularly far from where David Peterson was standing. Although Peterson had been warming earlier in the game, he stopped when the Brewers took a late lead. Then the Mets rallied, Alonso worked his magic, and Peterson, in his words, “went nuts for a second.”

Upon calming, Peterson closed out the Mets’ 4-2 win at American Family Field with his first career save. It was the final stroke of a bold pitching plan that saw manager Carlos Mendoza and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner push back on the notion of best modern practices. Each lever they pulled set the stage for later decisions. Beginning with …

Jose Quintana went six innings in an elimination game. Entering the night, Mets officials figured they would ask Quintana for 12 outs. Although Quintana had been one of their most effective pitchers since mid-June, with a 2.77 ERA over his final 18 regular-season starts, Mendoza and Hefner didn’t expect him to see any Brewers more than twice — a strategy that’s become industry standard in the playoffs, and especially in elimination games.

The thinking changed as Quintana began mowing down Milwaukee’s hitters without much trouble. When leadoff man Jackson Chourio approached the plate for his third at-bat with two outs and the bases empty in the fifth, Mendoza decided to let Quintana continue. When Quintana escaped that inning without any damage, Mendoza gave him the sixth as well.

“Q had his good stuff,” Hefner said. “He was executing. He was getting the swings and misses, getting the weak contact. We were playing really good defense behind him. And so it was one of those things where you kind of go against the book, and you roll with him and see what happens.”

“It’s huge,” added Mendoza. “This is who Quintana is. He is a guy that has been in this game for a long time. There is a reason why he’s poised. He’s calm. He knows the situation. He knew what we were facing.”

Mendoza’s lone mistake was turning the seventh inning over to José Buttó, who gave up back-to-back homers to pinch-hitter Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick to put the Mets on the brink of elimination. Had Quintana exited earlier, the Mets likely would have given the middle innings to Peterson, a left-hander. But with lefty masher Rhys Hoskins due to lead off the seventh, Mendoza turned instead to Buttó, who lasted only three batters before departing.

Hefner and Mendoza knew they had Edwin Díaz for up to 40 pitches, so they brought him in at that juncture with the game on the line. This was Díaz’s first appearance since throwing a career-high 66 pitches over two days on Sunday and Monday. He was back to full strength, which he proved in striking out William Contreras to strand two runners on base in the seventh, then in fanning two more batters in the eighth.

As Díaz recalled, he was feeling so “physically great” that he asked Mendoza to let him nail down the final three outs as well. The manager had other plans. With Frelick and another lefty, Brice Turang, due up in the ninth, Mendoza asked Peterson to try to record his first career save.

The lefty needed just eight pitches to end things. After allowing a leadoff single, Peterson struck out Joey Ortiz before inducing a first-pitch, series-ending double play from Turang.

“It’s unbelievable,” Peterson said. “We’re moving on. That’s the biggest thing. I’m just happy we got the job done.”

In the playoffs, the path to 27 outs is rarely easy. In this Wild Card Series, the Mets faced an even greater challenge given their recent schedule, which included a doubleheader Monday in Atlanta, followed by playoff games the next three nights. They’ll begin the NLDS on similar rocky footing, unable to use any of their top starters in Game 1. While the Mets have yet to finalize their pitching plans, Tylor Megill emerged late Thursday as their leading candidate to start.

Who pitches after that will be a puzzle for Mets officials to solve just the way they did in Wild Card Series Game 3.

“And honestly, it was Mendy,” Hefner said. “It’s all credit to Mendy and his ability to feel for the game.”