GOIN’ BATTY VS. BRAVES!
Rosario has five hits, Alonso has five hits, six RBI and 39th HR
ATLANTA — The Mets dugout may have to turn up the air conditioning to keep their team Polar Bear in comfortable conditions.
Pete Alonso set the tone in the Mets’ muchneeded 10-8 win over the Braves with his 39th home run, a threerun shot, in the first inning. He hit the moonshot in a familiar area of SunTrust Park. The homer went a projected 451 feet landed in the pond of the bat- ter’s eye in center field, the same spot Alonso hit his fourth homer of the year back in April.
Amed Rosario had a careerhigh five hits with an RBI and four runs scored. The Mets shortstop, who improved his batting average to .289, finished a home run shy of the cycle.
The Mets pounded out a season-high
23 hits in game that was a blowout until the Braves made it close with four runs in the ninth.
Alonso tied the record for most homers in the National League by a rookie. Cody Bellinger shares that mark with him (for now). It helped snap the Mets’ threegame losing streak, and the Amazin’s will fly into Kansas City on a 62-59 record.
“I don’t stand alone. I’m tied, so hopefully I’ll keep on going and pushing forward. Hopefully I can stand alone in that category,” Alonso said on tying Bellinger for the NL rookie record.
Marcus Stroman made his third start for the Mets since getting traded by the Blue Jays ahead of the July 31 trade deadline. The exuberant righty held one of the top lineups in the NL to two earned runs on four hits with 4 walks and five strikeouts over 5.1 innings. Stroman hurled 96 pitches on his way to recording his first Mets’ win.
The Long Island native escaped bases-loaded jams in the first and third to negate a big inning for the Braves to pile on runs.
Afterward, Stroman raved about Alonso.
“It’s incredible. It’s hard to put into words. Five knocks as rookie. He’s on everything, barreling everything,” Stroman said. “He’s propelled this offense and been the guy that’s got us going and we kind of feed off him.”
Alonso went 5 for 5 with a walk and collected six RBI for the first time in his young career. Alonso is the third Mets rookie with six or more RBI in a game, joining Jeromy Burnitz (Aug. 5, 1993) and David Wright (Aug. 5, 2004). He’s just three home runs shy of breaking the Mets’ all-time home run record, cur
rently set by Carlos Beltran and Todd Hundley, who each recorded 41 homers.
“Great people are rarely satisfied with what’s going on,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. “No matter how many records they break, they want more. And I think Pete’s that guy. You can see that drive. That energy.”
The Mets rookie was hardly the only one in the lineup with a hot bat on Thursday. The Mets forced Braves right-handed starter Julio Teheran from his outing after just 1.1 innings. The Amazin’s had already jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the time Josh Tomlin jogged out of the bullpen for Atlanta in the second inning.
Juan Lagares had three hits to finish the three-game series going 8 for 13. It’s a positive trend for the outfielder, who will see more playing time with Jeff McNeil sidelined with a low-grade hamstring strain. Wilson Ramos went 4 for 6 with an RBI. The catcher is batting .417 in August.