The Fort Worth Press - Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies

Alonso blasted a second-inning home run to open the scoring at Citi Field while Manaea shut down the Phillies bats through seven scoreless innings, helping the Mets take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five MLB National League Division Series.

The result means New York, who finished in third place behind Philadelphia and Atlanta in the regular season, can book an improbable trip to the National League Championship Series with victory in game four on Wednesday.

Philadelphia had yanked back the series momentum with a thrilling win in game two on Sunday after being stunned in game one a day earlier.

But the Mets reclaimed the initiative in clinical fashion on Tuesday thanks to the first playoff victory of Manaea's career.

The win was especially sweet for Manaea, who had been battered for five runs in less than two innings by the Phillies during a nightmare playoff performance in 2022.

With Manaea dominant, the Mets batting jumped on Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola.

Alonso got things going with a 385-foot blast to right field in the second before Jesse Winker doubled the lead with the second homer of the game to make it 2-0 in the fourth.

Nola was hooked after giving up two walks to help the Mets load the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Reliever Orion Kerkering came in to staunch the bleeding but shipped a two-out single to Starling Marte which allowed Alonso and Brandon Nimmo to cross home plate for a 4-0 lead.

The Mets tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh after Jose Iglesias singled to score Harrison Baden and Nimmo to make it 6-0.

Philadelphia finally got on the scoreboard in the eighth inning after singles from Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, but the Mets extended their lead in the eighth before closer Ryne Stanek wrapped up the win.

K.Ibarra--TFWP