PHILADELPHIA — Pete Alonso and the Mets are taking a playoff pumpkin with them on their playoff run back to the Big Apple.

These Cinderella Mets — who appropriately use orange in their color scheme — hope their carriage ride through the postseason won’t turn into a pumpkin at midnight any time soon as they chase their first World Series championship since 1986.

Maybe it helps that Alonso already snagged a lucky squash at a Wisconsin pumpkin patch.

Alonso used a dose of pumpkin power to hit a three-run homer off closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning to put the Mets up for good in a 4-2 victory over the Brewers on Thursday in the decisive third game of their NL Wild Card Series.

Alonso and the Mets advanced to a best-of-five Division Series beginning Saturday in Philadelphia against the NL East champion Phillies. As Alonso spoke to reporters during the champagne-soaked celebration in the Mets’ locker room, he was handed a small pumpkin. Alonso called it his “playoff pumpkin” and explained that he and his wife had found it while visiting a farm outside Milwaukee when the Mets were playing here last weekend.

“Nothing’s more fall than playoff baseball and pumpkins,” Alonso said.

Alonso plopped the pint-sized pumpkin on a clubhouse table next to cans of beer while he uncorked bubbly in a wild celebration. Who knows, when the Mets retired Darryl Strawberry’s No. 18 this season, the famed Home Run Apple at Citi Field was redecorated to look like a strawberry. Maybe when the Mets return home next week for Games 3 and 4, a playoff pumpkin will rise beyond center field.

It’s all part of a fun fall spirit the Mets hope stretches into the Fall Classic.

“That’s who we are as an organization, and that’s who we are as a team,” Alonso said Thursday night. “That’s our identity. We have everyone’s back and fully supportive, and everybody’s in it together.”

Mets name Senga their Game 1 starter: Kodai Senga is the surprise Game 1 starter for the Mets when they open the NL Division Series on Saturday against the Phillies. Senga has thrown just 5 1/3 major league innings all year. He joined the Mets ahead of the 2023 season on a $75 million, five-year contract and became an All-Star in his first season. He went 12-7 with a 2.98 ERA in 29 starts and finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

The 31-year-old Japanese pitcher made just one start this season as he dealt with injuries that included tightness in his right triceps.

Musgrove needs Tommy John surgery: Padres starter Joe Musgrove needs Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch in the NLDS against the Dodgers. The right-hander has an ulnar collateral ligament injury.

A.J. Preller, the Padres president of baseball operations, announced the injury Friday. The Padres open the NLDS on Saturday in Los Angeles. Musgrove left Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series with elbow tightness. He had been pitching through discomfort for a couple weeks.