Alonso sets rookie HR mark in Mets win
Completely stonefaced as most of those around him began screaming, Pete Alonso took several steps toward first base, subtly dropped his bat and watched with everyone else as his tall fly ball cut through the humid Queens air.
Only when the ball landed in the first row of seats in right-centerfield, ensuring Alonso's newest place in baseball history, did all that change. His stoicism became jubilance, his silence gave way to a yell and his nonchalant pace quickened to a jog as his raised both arms in celebration.
Alonso made history — again — Saturday night in the Mets' 3-0 win over the Braves. His 53rd home run broke the major-league record for a rookie season, one more than the Yankees' Aaron Judge, who had 52 in 2017.
The record-setting shot came in the third inning against Atlanta's Mike Foltynewicz, who threw a 93-mph meatball twoseamer over the middle of the plate. Alonso crushed it, and the Citi Field PA system blared the theme from “The Natural.”
By the time Alonso crossed the plate, half of his team had emptied out of the dugout for their hugs and handshakes. Upon reaching the top step, Alonso raised both arms again and pointed to the crowd, soaking it all in before making his way into the dugout.
By the time Alonso took the field for the top of the fourth — as the grounds crew replaced the bases — he had tears in his eyes. When the inning began, he swallowed the lump in his throat, took a big breath and pounded his glove with his bare hand, readying for each pitch from Steven Matz to the Braves.
Heading into the final day of the season Sunday, Alonso leads everybody in home runs, holding a comfortable lead over the Reds' Eugenio Suarez, who began Saturday with 49. Alonso is on the brink of becoming the first rookie in the modern era (since 1900) to finish a season as the majors' outright homer king and the first Mets player ever to do so.
If he plays, Alonso will face Braves righthander Mike Soroka — perhaps the second-best rookie in the National League this year — who is a groundball pitcher and thrives with a sinker/slider combo down in the strike zone.
That will mark the end of a season in which Alonso: won the Mets' first-base job in spring training; became an AllStar; won the Home Run Derby; coined the team's new slogan, “LFGM”; set the franchise single-season homer record; organized a 9/11 tribute by buying teammates specially made cleats honoring first responders; and now passed Judge.
And he doesn't even necessarily consider himself a home run hitter.
“I consider myself a gap-to-gap, line-drive hitter,” Alonso said this week.