NL WILD CARD SERIES: PADRES VS METS

October 8, 2022

Pete Alonso

Francisco Lindor

Citi Field

New York Mets

Postgame Press Conference

New York - 7, San Diego - 3

Q. For both of you, it seemed like it was a total team effort, and a lot of people stepped up when it mattered most. Just summarize this big victory in a must win.

PETE ALONSO: I mean, we had contributions from everyone up and down the lineup. Then Jake, I mean, he set the tone right from the start. He poured his heart out there for us.

Obviously Sugar coming in basically shutting the door. Otto coming in, getting some huge outs for us, and then Seth making the last out.

I thought our pitchers threw the ball extremely well, and our offense, every single one of us had excellent at-bats. We were really, really good tonight. We executed our plan, and I thought that we were -- we didn't waste any swings. We capitalized on stuff in the zone. And we took our walks when opportunities weren't there in the zone. So I thought we did a great job discipline-wise.

FRANCISCO LINDOR: Yeah, overall it was great. It was a very Mets-like game play. Everybody played very well, and we stayed within ourselves.

Q. Tomorrow is also a must win. You as an athlete, do you try to have selective amnesia or use this as momentum going into Game 3?

PETE ALONSO: Honestly every game is different, every game is different, every pitch is different. So I mean, we'll see where we're at tomorrow. We've just got to see how they're attacking us. But for us, if we can stay within ourselves, execute like we did tonight, up and down the order and have our pitchers do a really good job, I feel like we have a really good chance tomorrow.

Again, it's all about execution and big moments and capitalizing.

FRANCISCO LINDOR: Yeah, we learned from today, turn the page, come back tomorrow, and focus on what we have in front of our feet. Every day is a little different. It might be the same opponent, but every day is a little different.

We've got to turn the page, celebrate tonight, turn the page, and focus on tomorrow.

Q. Pete, was that the most important home run of your career to this point?

PETE ALONSO: I think so, yeah. Being able to come up clutch in a spot like that to get the lead, I mean, that was awesome. Hopefully I can hit a few more like that tomorrow and moving forward. So I'm just really happy I was able to help the team.

Q. Francisco, you touched on this earlier. Did this game kind of feel more like you were back to yourselves a little bit? Just because we talked to you about the Atlanta series, where you guys didn't feel like you clicked, and Friday night was a tough game obviously. Did this feel more like, with the at-bats, with Jake gutting through his part of the game, did it feel more like what you guys do to win games tonight?

FRANCISCO LINDOR: Definitely. I mean, we've been trying to play like ourselves. It's just it's baseball. We have good days. We have bad days. We try to eliminate as many bad days as possible and try to have more good days.

Like I said earlier, today we played very Mets-like. We put the ball in play. We run the bases right. We play good defense. We pitch. We stay together, and we win together.

Q. Two things, one, when you have a season where you win 101 games, it had to have some things you were able to draw on in this moment to go back to winning. I'm just wondering whether you think the kind of success you had this year allowed you to sort of draw on it in this moment in order to figure out what it is to win the way the Mets have won this year?

PETE ALONSO: Well, to be honest, these past two games have been completely different than the regular season 162. I mean, everything is -- I don't know. It's just different.

There's something about postseason baseball, from what I've experienced, where every tiny little mistake is capitalized upon or any little slip up can be taken advantage of.

And I feel like now, how the game unfolded yesterday, they took advantage of every little opportunity. And today we flipped the script. We took advantage of every tiny little opportunity. In the regular season, that might not happen that way because everyone is so together, so locked in.

Even though we've had some big games during the regular season, this is different. That's why we have to stay together, take it day by day, pitch by pitch.

FRANCISCO LINDOR: Regular season, it's regular season. You learn a lot from it. It's a long year. You have ups and downs. You kind of learn a lot more from each other.

But in the postseason, I don't want to say it's a different game, but there's less room for mistakes. You've just got to go out there and capitalize on everything that's possible. You get the best of the best. You get -- you knew Darvish, it could be his last start of the year. You knew Snell, it could be his last start of the year. Scherzer, it could be his last start of the year. Same thing with Musgrove tomorrow, and Bassitt. It could be the last time they throw, or same thing, it could be our last at-bat.

So you get the best of the best day in and day out. That's why the games are so much better because the focus goes to a different level. Nobody is complaining about how tired they are. Everybody is locked in, and it makes you feel all different.

Q. Just as a follow up, Buck talked about a lot of the conversation coming into tonight being player driven. Could you tell us who was leading those conversations? What was that conversation like that got you guys prepared for tonight?

PETE ALONSO: I don't think anyone was kind of spearheading it. I think it was just organic with pretty much everybody because everyone wants to put their best foot forward, especially tonight facing elimination for us.

So everyone, it was just a lot of just good ball talk amongst the fellas because everyone wants to exchange good information that could be used during the game to help us win.

Q. With the games being so different like you mentioned, is there anything from a Mets-like win tonight that you could carry into tomorrow?

PETE ALONSO: I guess just keeping the effort level the same, the effort level and focus the same. Because tonight what we brought to the table, it was excellent, not just from a defensive standpoint, base running, offensive, quality at-bats.

Not just the hits, you look at the quality of pitches that guys were fouling off, that guys were -- borderline pitching guys were taking, working walks. This was a huge complete win. When we say Mets baseball, it's just we did everything -- we did the fundamentals extremely well. That's going to be good momentum going into tomorrow.

Q. Pete, you had talked about how excited you were about the challenge coming into this series. Could you and Francisco talk about the emotions? I know it's not Game 7 technically, but it is winner take all. What are your emotions going into this game?

PETE ALONSO: Well, today it was a pretty similar type of feeling because we are facing elimination and we're doing the same tomorrow.

Like I said before, what we brought today collectively as a team was excellent. Yeah, like I said yesterday, this is fun baseball. Like I'm just so excited to come to the field tomorrow. This is what it's for. We're going to come ready to go.

FRANCISCO LINDOR: Yeah.

Q. Pete, you, McNeil, and Nimmo, all guys who were drafted and developed by the Mets, all guys who waited a while for your first postseason game, and all guys who had big RBIs tonight, how meaningful was it for you to get that moment and watch some of the guys who you've been in the trenches with for a while also get that moment?

PETE ALONSO: It's really special, really special for all of us individually and collectively. This is why we play. I mean, for these moments.

I'm just really happy we were able to earn our spot in the postseason because being able to get here is really difficult. It's special tonight, but we have our work cut out for us tomorrow. We just want to give our best effort.

Q. Back to the game itself, it seemed to be like two different games, pre-fifth inning and post-fifth inning. When you had Snell on the ropes early, you talked about you were working him, getting walks, but you weren't getting the big hit. Your first three runs, two of them were on homers, one was yours. It seemed like the whole game changed when McNeil got the base hit. What was going on? Was there any frustration there that you weren't able to knock in some of those runs? Because it felt like a game that should have been 8-1 very early.

FRANCISCO LINDOR: It's just baseball. Snell is on the mound, yeah, he didn't execute early, but he was making pitches when it got tough for him. We had a lot of opportunities early. We didn't really capitalize on them.

Then as soon as we capitalized, it felt like the ball kind of got going for us. It helped us. It helped our momentum. That's just the game of baseball. That's the way it goes. You score one here, one there, they come in bunches.

The game is not easy at all. A lot of -- we're all trying to get that passing the baton so the next guy can do it and the next guy and on and on. We put a couple base runners, and we got that big blow.

PETE ALONSO: Despite not having that big hit, I think after three innings we did an excellent job. What was his pitch count through three innings?

Q. 60 or something.

PETE ALONSO: So like through three or four innings we got his pitch count up. That's what we do. If we don't come up with that big hit, we're going to wear on you. That's a testament to having really good at-bats. That's why you keep going, keep pushing.