Pérez impresses with career-high 11 strikeouts, but Alonso's Mets stay alive in postseason race

[Kevin Barral]

MIAMI, FL—In a game that the New York Mets needed to win, their franchise's all-time home run leader stepped up. Pete Alonso took care of business early, immediately giving the Mets the lead and later adding to his homer total. Alonso out-hit the Miami Marlins all by himself in a 5-0 Mets victory.

Eury Pérez, who was making his final start of the season, gave the Marlins 5 ⅓ innings, allowing three runs on three hits, three walks and struck out a career-high 11 batters. Pérez also set a career-high with 100 pitches thrown. Through 20 starts in 2025, the right-hander posted a 4.25 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 9.91 K/9 and 3.02 BB/9 in 95 ⅓ innings pitched.

"It was great to see him come out of the gates after a slow first inning," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "Especially with the strike-throwing, behind a lot and was able to get through the first inning with just the one run. Other than the Alonso home run, 3-2 pitch, his level of conviction and aggressiveness picked up from the second inning on. He saw a lot of fastballs at 100 (mph) or higher and certainly the stuff speaks for itself. We all know what Eury is capable of doing and really happy that he was able to get through a shaky first and to pitch as well as he did the rest of the game."

During that "slow" first inning, Alonso hit his National League-leading 41st double of the season, driving in Francisco Lindor and giving the Mets a 1-0 lead. Alonso hit his 38th home run in the top of the third, extending New York's lead to 2-0. Pérez left the game with a runner on second, who scored off of Lake Bachar.

"There's a ton of power that this guy puts up year after year," McCullough said regarding Alonso. "He's been a prolific power hitter in this league since he debuted. The thing I appreciate about watching Pete play is that he's a real winner. He loves to play and he loves to compete. He's always a threat when he's in the box and he got some mistake pitches and that's what he's very capable of doing."

The Mets put the nail in the coffin on the game in the top of the ninth inning when Lindor drove in Francisco Alvarez on an RBI single, making it a 4-0 game. A wild pitch from George Soriano plated the fifth run.

The lone Marlins hit was an Xavier Edwards single off of Clay Holmes in the third inning. Connor Norby and Eric Wagaman each hit deep fly balls against Mets relievers that died on the left field warning track.

With the loss, the Marlins fall to 78-83 on the season and the 83-78 Mets remain alive in the National League Wild Card race. However, they'll likely need some help from the Cincinnati Reds, who as of this writing are up big against the Milwaukee Brewers and closing in on their 83rd win as well. The Reds own the tiebreaker over the Mets if they wind up with the same record.

First pitch of the regular season finale will be at 3:10 p.m. ET.

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