Mets walk-off home run by Francisco Alvarez was the first of its kind

New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez added another first to his career in Monday night's 4-3 victory against the Orioles with his first career walk-off hit, a 421-foot home run against Baltimore's newly-minted closer, Seranthony Dominguez. But it was not the biggest reason why this home run was significant in the history of the franchise.

One of the worst things a batter can do is swing on a 3-0 pitch and make an out on that pitch, wasting the most favorable pitch count possible in an at-bat. But the free-swinging Alvarez did it anyway, and he made Mets history in the process while giving the fans and his teammates an incredible pimp job celebration.

Francisco Alvarez hit the first New York Mets player on record to hit a walk-off home run on a 3-0 pitch in Monday's win.

Keep in mind that pitch count history has only been complete since 1988 when the Stats LLC company (known today as Stats Perform) began tracking it full-time. There had been 17 walk-off homers on 3-0 counts in the regular season since then by other teams and prior to Monday night (by 17 different players), and one in the postseason (Tony Pena's walk-off in Game 1 of the 1995 ALDS for Cleveland).

Pena and Alvarez are also the only two catchers with such home runs in the regular season or postseason, with Alvarez's being the first by a catcher in the regular season.

Ex-Met Kevin Mitchell hit the earliest recorded walk-off homer on a 3-0 count in 1990 for the Giants against his former team, while Nick Maton had the most recent such instance in April 2023 for the Tigers against the Giants and star closer Camillo Doval.

It takes a lot of guts for someone to swing on a 3-0 pitch where a hitter has like a 50 percent chance of reaching base if he doesn't swing and the batting average on balls in play is below that. But whatever math the Mets analytics gurus or manager Carlos Mendoza used to give Alvarez the green light, which Alvarez said postgame he was grateful for, it was pure genius.

But let's be real here. The idiom "no guts, no glory" applied to the Mets on Monday when it came to their quest to make the playoffs. The way the game transpired should have made the Mets fan think that they probably would have lost the game if the game went into extra innings. The Mets had conceded a 3-run lead and they already used Edwin Diaz in the top of the 9th suggested the Orioles would have taken advantage in the 10th inning or later.

With one gutsy swing, however, Francisco Alvarez changed the conversation in New York, even it lasts just one night.