Pete Alonso and the New York Mets rode a wave of momentum into their home game at Citi Field in Queens on Thursday night against the Miami Marlins. Coming off a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies at home, the Mets were determined to extend their win streak in the series opener versus the visiting Marlins.
It didn't go according to their plan, however, as the Mets suffered a 7-4 loss — but not before Alonso hit a historic milestone.
In the fifth inning, Alonso smacked a huge two-run home run off a 95 mph four-seam fastball from Marlins reliever Lake Bachar to tie the score at 4-4. It was the first baseman's 30th home run of the season. More than that, it put him in an extremely exclusive home run club that's only other member is the Baseball Hall of Fame-bound Albert Pujols.
“Pete Alonso and Albert Pujols are the only players in Major League history to hit at least 30 homers in each of their first six non-shortened seasons,” wrote Anthony DiComo of MLB.com in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Alonso had one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory, as he hit 53 home runs in the 2019 campaign. The following season, he only had 16 homers, but that was during the COVID-shortened MLB campaign. Since then, he has hit at least 30 taters each season. To date, Pete Alonso has 256 home runs in his career in the big leagues. On the season, the 2019 National League Rookie of the Year Award winner is hitting .267/.348/.514 with 108 RBIs through 134 games.
Alonso finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs. He also had one of the Mets' three errors. Those blunders by New York led to three unearned runs in the seventh inning, where the Marlins broke a tie and grabbed the lead for good.
The Mets dropped to 72-62 and now trail the Phillies for the top spot in the National League East division by five games.
New York will look to get back to its winning ways when the Mets give the ball to prized prospect Jonah Tong for his MLB debut, while the Marlins send Eury Perez to the mound.
