Very rarely, when winter weather conditions come together frighteningly, cold, dry air from the north and warm, moist air from the tropics collide like freight trains on a track. Air pressure drops dramatically and a winter storm becomes a “once in a generation” monster. The scientific term for this phenomenon is bombogenesis.

Without snow and wind streams, but with the necessary force and suddenness, a bomb explosion occurred at American Family Field in Milwaukee on Thursday evening. This time it was a once-in-a-generation home run – from a polar bear, no less.

Like bomb cyclones and Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso doesn’t give adequate warning when he’s about to go off.

He can knock off a foul pop-up like a Little Leaguer one minute, as he did in Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, and hit one of the greatest home runs in the history of the next minute Mets score.

He can go 12 days without an extra base hit, as he did when he drove in two runs with the Mets and got the last two outs of their OMG season, and 92 days without a home run after a changeup. and still got a hit against one of the nastiest pitchers in the game, the airbender of Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams.

Alonso plays baseball without style, subtlety or grace. He swings too much. He’s not fast. His play at first base is reminiscent of the nickname Lonnie Smith earned for his play in left field: Skates. Every time he has to go 3-1 with the pitcher, there’s a Wes Craven movie waiting to happen.

But what Alonso can do as well as anyone is change games in one fell swoop. A shot that often comes out of nowhere, like his gigantic shot that won Game 3 4-2 and sent the Mets to the NLDS in Philadelphia. No matter how bad it was or how ugly his final shot looked, Alonso is always just one shot away from changing the game.

When Alonso began his at-bat against Williams, he was 5-for-38 (.132) with no extra base hits and 18 strikeouts. With runners on first and third, a double play would have ended the Mets’ season. Unfortunately, engaging in double plays is also part of his game. Over the past four years, he has scored 68 times, tied for seventh in baseball.

Alonso, who went all the way, looked at a first-pitch changeup over the heart of the plate. Williams missed badly with two fastballs and then missed with a changeup to the inside. Now the score was 3-1 and Williams had to throw a shot. He chose his best pitch, his changeup. Naturally.

The airbender is so nasty that since September 1, 2023, Williams has thrown 290 of them without giving up a home run. It has so much depth and barrel that it is almost impossible to lift. Alonso didn’t seem to be a candidate for this. He hadn’t hit a home run since June 28 after a changeup. His last one before that was in April.

Williams needed something in the zone and targeted the strike zone too much. Alonso, who was not yet able to swing the bat, pounced. The bat hit the ball like cold, dry air colliding with warm, moist air. The perfect ingredients for bombogenesis.

Nobody knows where Alonso will play next year. If you’re the sentimental type, you might believe that his home run not only earns him a hallowed place in Mets history, but also a big, fat new contract from owner Steve Cohen. But the baseball business is even more cold-hearted. The Mets let Ray Knight walk once after he was MVP of the 1986 World Series.

Alonso may have a market limited by the contracts of Matt Olson ($168 million) and Freddie Freeman ($162 million) and the bias of analytically minded front offices when it comes to paying a slugger, who is entering his 30s and has no top baserunning or defensive skills who is coming off the worst batting season of his career (.459). But he showed in Game 3 why he is so valuable. The guy hits like 40 home runs and rolls out of bed. He’s changing the game at a time when the home run ball has become increasingly valuable.

And now the Mets are looking more and more like the 2023 Texas Rangers. Texas lost the division title on the final day of the season. They had to travel from Anaheim to Seattle to Tampa Bay (Wild Card Series) to Baltimore (Division Series) before returning home 14 days after their departure. The grind was the best thing that could have happened to them. They won the World Series by going undefeated on the road.

The Rangers have come together through a long period of playing (and winning) big games on the road. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward. Now it’s the Mets who are rewarded after a 14-day trip through three cities, 3,553 miles, two champagnes and a jet-powered hurricane: from New York to Atlanta, to Milwaukee, to Atlanta, to Milwaukee and to Philadelphia New York. The Mets, Royals and Tigers all prove this month that emotions and intangibles become bigger factors in the postseason.

Alonso became a playoff legend on Thursday evening. October lore is full of such swings – not just game-winning home runs, but also the bomb cyclones of home runs. The ones that come out of nowhere. Bill Mazeroski by Ralph Terry. Kirk Gibson ahead of Dennis Eckersley. Travis Ishikawa in front of Michael Wacha. Rajai Davis in front of Aroldis Chapman. Tom Lawless by Frank Viola.

This was another manifestation of this phenomenon. Williams just doesn’t give up on his home runs – up to this point, he’s only hit six out of 2,325 in his career. Alonso was ice cold. It turned out to be the perfect storm.