MILWAUKEE — Donnie Scott might have wondered why he was getting a call from the 608 area code late Thursday night. Or perhaps he quickly put two and two together.
Either way, the Madison Mallards manager was more than happy to talk about Pete Alonso.
“Bet he’s a hated man up there,” Scott said.
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Hate’s a strong word, but Alonso broke plenty of hearts across Wisconsin when he hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the New York Mets to a 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in the deciding game of a National League Wild Card series at American Family Field.
Four Milwaukee pitchers had delivered eight innings of excellence before the ball was turned over to closer Devin Williams, who was two outs away from helping the Brewers win their first postseason series since 2018 when Alonso ripped an opposite-field shot over the wall in right field.
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Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy called it a “tragedy.” The next person in the interview room was Alonso, who described it as “a really special moment.”
Baseball’s weird that way. The Brewers were this close to wrapping up the series and heading to Philadelphia for a divisional round series that begins Saturday; it instead will be the Mets in that spot opposite the Phillies.
This was a full-circle moment for Alonso. A decade ago, he was 19 and playing for the Mallards between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Florida, hitting .354 with 18 homers and 53 RBIs in 59 games during his summer in the Northwoods League.
“I had a tough freshman year, and for me, I think I found my true identity as a ballplayer in Madison,” Alonso said. “That 2014 summer was really formative. It taught me how to ride a bus. It taught me what the minor leagues was going to be like because there’s a ton of hours. I had a great manager in Donnie Scott. I had great team members. I had a great host family.
“That year was really formative for who I have become as a baseball player. Really, really helpful, for sure.”
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It’d be easy for Scott to say now that he knew all along that Alonso would turn into a mega-star in the majors but, well, he kind of did.
Alonso arrived in Madison with a great attitude. He was hungry to learn. He was excited to play every day, even if it meant doing it in places like La Crosse, Wausau, Green Bay, Kenosha and Wisconsin Rapids.
A scout had told Alonso, a first baseman, that he might want to get some work in at third base just in case. So Alonso walked into Scott’s office the first day and asked if he could take 100 grounders each day at that spot. No problem, Scott told him, and as the summer progressed, Alonso was taking pregame grounders at shortstop to work on his range.
“He was so focused,” Scott said. “He loves the game. You could see the passion. You could hear it in his voice and how much everything meant to him.
“I was just proud about how he went his business every day. He came there to play baseball. He had his priorities straight and the character that he has is incredible. That’s why he’s at where he is now.”
Ten years later, Scott remembers that five of Alonso’s homers with the Mallards came on 3-0 counts. It was a no-brainer for Scott to give him the green light any time he could.
Scott remembers being asked by Mallards president Vern Stenman how many homers he thought Alonso would hit in the majors. Scott predicted Alonso would hit 50 in a season. Five years after his summer with the Mallards, Alonso was in the majors and hit 53 homers as a rookie with the Mets.
Alonso is an impending free agent who had been slumping late in the season. When he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning Thursday, he’d gone 49 at-bats without a homer and was in a 5-for-38 skid.
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“It’s baseball,” he said. “It’s a game of failure.”
Not this time. Alonso sat on a 3-1 changeup from Williams and drove the 86 mph pitch to the opposite field. As he triumphantly made his way around the bases, Williams stared toward the outfield in disbelief, as if that momentum couldn’t possibly have happened.
“It could have been better, but it wasn’t the worst pitch I’ve ever thrown,” Williams said. “I wanted to go away with it and got it there. Good piece of hitting.”
Alonso has hit 226 homers in six seasons in the majors. This was No. 2 for him in the postseason, and maybe there’ll be more to come this October.
Watching it all happen in Florida was Scott, who admitted it was bittersweet to watch a postseason baseball game that turned into a classic.
Scott felt bad for the Brewers. He’d spent three seasons playing in the minors with the organization in the late 1980s.
But he was filled with so much pride after watching Alonso deliver in the clutch.
“He’s a born hitter, man,” Scott said. “I know a lot of people just think he’s a home run guy, but he’s really a good hitter, too, and that swing tonight showed you that.”
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Jim Polzin | Wisconsin State Journal
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