Pete Alonso wasn't worried about Game 5 possibly being his Citi Field farewell
If the Mets don't win two straight in Los Angeles Sunday and Monday to advance to the World Series, Friday's thrilling win in Game 5 will have been their last ride at Citi Field for this year.
Pending free agency, it could've been Pete Alonso's last game as a Met in Queens, too…but he's seen this phenomenon twice now, so it didn't really faze him Friday.
"I was just pretty much focused on competing and trying to win and get this thing to Game 6 and contribute however I could to help the team win. That's pretty much it," Alonso said after the game. "That's all what this postseason is about; it's about winning. It's about surviving and living to see another day until there's no more baseball left."
Pete definitely delivered, his three-run homer getting the Mets up 3-0 early and he also added a single, a walk, and three more runs scored by game's end – which brought the Citi faithful to their feet chanting his name, all knowing that could've been his swan song.
"I mean, it's so special. It's like story book-type stuff. When you grow up as a kid, you dream about that type of stuff," Alonso said. "In the moment, it's so special, but it's difficult to take a step back and enjoy because it's like, okay, great, we've got a job to do. We've got to finish this game out. We've got to keep competing here."
That doesn't mean he didn't enjoy looking back on it, though.
"At the end of the day, there's little kids inside all of us, and that joy that you see all of us playing with right now, that's really special," Alonso said, "but you can't be a fan -- all of us are fans of the game, we love the game, we watched the game when we were growing up. But you can't get wrapped up in that. It's really special but we just have to keep continue staying locked in. It's storybook-type stuff and I'm just honored and blessed."
Whether the Mets return to Queens or not, they've extended their year for at least one more game, hopefully two, and then four to seven more after that, and that's all they're really focused on.
"It's really special and I'm just happy to do it with this group; I can't say it enough that this group is so special. We've faced adversity and been so resilient. We've bounced back time and time again over the course of the year," Alonso said. "You look at the path of everything, it's completely unexplainable, but we're all just happy to have another opportunity to fight another day, and we'll be ready. Today was all about figure it out and get to Game 7, survive the day, and that's what we did. (Sunday) it's going to be the same mentality: figure it out and get to Game 7."
Survive and advance…just like they've been doing for over a month now.
"It's such a special ride, and we want to keep playing hard, playing together as a unit," Alonso said. "That's one of that's one of the huge reasons why we're at where we're at, and we want to keep continuing the fight, sticking together and embracing the opportunity every single day. How we've responded and answered the bell every single step of the way this year, it's been tremendous, and we're really, really excited for the opportunity coming up."
