Recreation 3 between the Mets and the Brewers contained just a little little bit of all the things Thursday evening — a pitching duel, back-to-back homers on back-to-back pitches and, maybe most significantly, a thrilling end when Pete Alonso drilled a go-ahead three-run homer within the ninth.
And all of that translated into file scores throughout a historic wild-card spherical for ESPN.
The Mets-Brewers sport averaged 4.017 million viewers and peaked at 5.745 million at 9:45 p.m., in keeping with ESPN, to mark the community’s greatest scores for an MLB sport for the reason that 2021 wild-card sport between the Yankees and Pink Sox.
ESPN added that the Wild Card Sequence generated its most viewers ever with a mean of two.823 million — a 25 p.c enhance from the 2023 model of the spherical, in keeping with the community.
The following spherical of the postseason shifts to Fox and TBS for the NLCS and ALCS, respectively, earlier than returning to Fox for the World Sequence.
Nonetheless, the outcomes of the wild-card spherical featured loads of compelling storylines for ESPN to capitalize on.
The upstart Tigers swept the Astros in Houston whereas the Royals did the identical to the Orioles in Baltimore to begin their first postseason look since 2015.
The Mets — with their season seemingly all however over earlier than the calendar even flipped to June — continued their stunning turnaround with a shocking comeback in what might have been the ultimate inning of their season.
The time the Mets-Brewers broadcast peak was proper round Alonso’s homer and the aftermath of probably the most vital blast in a profession already crammed with them, as Jesse Winker adopted by getting hit by a pitch, stealing second and ultimately scoring when Starling Marte singled.
Then, within the backside half of the body, starter David Peterson labored round a leadoff single and induced a series-ending double play to spark the second champagne-filled celebration in 5 days — with the primary following Recreation 2 of their Monday doubleheader in Atlanta, when the Mets’ win to begin the day secured their spot within the postseason.
The Mets will meet the Phillies within the NLDS beginning Saturday, with Kodai Senga — making simply his second begin of the season after sustaining a calf pressure in his first again in July — opening for the Mets towards Zack Wheeler at Residents Financial institution Park.
