Pete Alonso’s walk-off lifts Mets to 5-2 extra-inning win over Rangers, snaps eight-game skid
Alonso’s three-run homer in the 10th ends a seven-year long losing streak as Nolan McLean tosses six strong innings for Texas
Pete Alonso hit a three-run, walk-off homer in the 10th inning Sunday to give the New York Mets a 5-2 victory over the Texas Rangers and snap the club’s longest losing streak in seven years at eight games.
With Francisco Lindor starting the inning on second base, the Rangers intentionally walked Juan Soto before Alonso cleared the right-field fence to end the game. The blast came after a scoreless first nine by either side and capped a day of missed opportunities, strong starting pitching and late defensive work.
Rangers right-hander Nolan McLean delivered six shutout innings, allowing five hits, striking out seven and walking two while lowering his ERA to 1.19. McLean worked around traffic at times — he escaped a two-out jam in the fourth by getting Adolis García to ground into a 6-4-3 double play and struck out Wyatt Langford to end the fifth — and departed with the game tied 2-2.
The Mets took the lead in the fifth when Soto delivered an RBI groundout. Francisco Álvarez began that rally with a bloop double to right, advanced to third on a Lindor groundout and dove across the plate to score ahead of Rowdy Tellez’s throw to first. Brandon Nimmo extended the lead with a leadoff homer in the sixth, his 23rd of the season and his first since Aug. 29.
The Mets also squandered chances earlier. In the second inning they loaded the bases on a Starling Marte single and walks to Álvarez and Lindor but failed to score when Soto was retired for the final out. The club’s struggles with runners in scoring position continued in the seventh, when a rally against Brooks Raley culminated in a two-run single by Joc Pederson off Reed Garrett that tied the game 2-2.
Oswaldo Cabrera (Osuna in the game log) had opened that seventh-inning rally with a leadoff single, and Raley later drilled Josh Smith with two outs before Garrett entered and walked Langford to load the bases. Pederson’s single produced the runs that erased the Mets’ lead.
The Rangers threatened again in the ninth against Mets closer Edwin Díaz, getting a go-ahead run to third with one out. Lindor ended the threat when he snagged a line drive and threw to third to double up pinch-runner Ezequiel Duran for the inning-ending out.
Ryne Stanek recorded the final out of the top of the 10th to preserve the Mets’ chance, and Alonso’s swing in the bottom of the inning produced the decisive blow.
The win halted the Mets’ eight-game skid, their longest slide in seven years, and provided a dramatic finish to a game in which both bullpens and several defensive plays influenced the outcome. Manager and clubhouse remarks were not immediately available; the Mets will next turn their focus to the remainder of their regular-season schedule as they try to regain consistency down the stretch.
