Orioles slugger Pete Alonso punctuated his return to Citi Field with a clutch home run on Tuesday night against his former team.
Alonso, who spent his entire professional career with the Mets until this season, played for the first time as a visitor at Citi Field in Queens on Monday with the opener of the interleague series. Alonso in that 2-1 Baltimore win went 0 for 3 with a walk. Tuesday night's game turned out to be much more memorable for Alonso, who remains a beloved figure among Mets fans.
With the Orioles trailing 1-0 in the ninth, Alonso stepped in with the bases empty and one out. Right-hander Kodai Senga threw Alonso three straight offspeed pitches. Alonso took the first two out of the zone, and the third one he launched 414 feet for career home run No. 300. Here's a look at the blast and the aggressive bat heave:
He's now the 171st member of the 300 home-run club. Alonso's game-tying homer certainly brought out the cheers from a Mets crowd that right now may be more partial to the franchise's all-time home run leader than they are to their own team that has been eliminated from postseason contention, at least in that particular moment above.
The Orioles went on to prevail on Tuesday night 7-5 in extra innings, which makes Alonso's ninth-inning homer a necessary one. The win nudges the Orioles up to 74-78 on the season, which means they're still very much alive in the chase for the third and final wild card spot in the American League.
As for Alonso, the homer was his 36th of the season, and he now boasts a slash line of .267/.362/.499. He's also played in all 152 games for Baltimore this season, and he leads the AL in RBI with 101.
The Mets and lead exec David Stearns didn't push to re-sign Alonso this past winter, and the Polar Bear wound up inking a five-year free agent contract with the Orioles. Alonso entered Tuesday's game with a 4.1 WAR for the season, so thus far he's been worth the investment.
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