SAN FRANCISCO — Pete Alonso’s home runs come in all shapes and sizes. Alonso is as adept at slamming line drives into opposite field as he is slamming moon shots into stadium headwaters, and hitting home runs easily. He hits her as well as anyone else. And he currently beats her more than anyone else.
Alonso’s ninth home run of the season on Thursday not only propelled the Mets to their seventh win in eight games, this time beating the Giants 9-4 at Oracle Park, but also set the franchise record for home runs in March and April of a single season . Alonso had already owned some of that mark in the first month of his rookie year in 2019 with nine home runs, joining John Buck, Carlos Delgado, Dave Kingman and Neil Walker.
He has nine April games to go this time to claim the record.
“You can tell that Pete is very comfortable when he has a good view of the ball,” said manager Buck Showalter. “If he gets something he can handle, he puts a good swing on it.”
That’s exactly what happened in Thursday’s fourth inning when Alonso spun a Sean Manaea sinker that the Giants delivered with the left wing on the inside edge of the hitting zone. The home run, which barely crossed the fence at left field, was one of Alonso’s shorter tape-measure efforts of a month and landed 366 feet from home. They all count equally for Alonso, who ranks fifth on the Mets’ all-time homer list:
1. Darryl Strawberry, 252
2. David Wright, 242
3. Mike Piazza, 220
4. Howard Johnson, 192
5. Alonso, 155
Alonso also passed two other Mets to join Rusty Staub for 13th on the team’s all-time RBI list:
10. Keith Hernandez, 468
11.Kevin McReynolds, 456
12. Daniel Murphy, 402
13-t. dust, 399
13-t. Alonso, 399
In his fourth major league start, Kodai Senga received ample extra running support. Eduardo Escobar also hit a homer, Jeff McNeil hit a solo shot while safely reaching base in all five of his plate appearances, and Brandon Nimmo accumulated three more hits to eight him in two games. But Alonso’s homer proved most effective, giving the Mets a lead they would never give up.
In a way, this hot streak is familiar to Alonso, who has enjoyed his share of homer binges in his first four seasons. In another way, for a player fast enough to hit 73 in the early stages, this is different. Most notably, Alonso came into play on Thursday with the best plate disciplines of his career. He had chased just 24.9% of the pitches from the batting zone, compared to his career average of 32%. Even last year, Alonso was swinging outside the zone 33.5% of the time when hitting 40 home runs.
His hitting coach, Jeremy Barnes, noted this week that “for him, it’s all about understanding what the pitcher is trying to do.”
“I dictate the shot,” agreed Alonso. “When the pitcher executes, that’s great. drink my hat But for me I have full control over when to swing the racquet and when not to.”
After last season, despite making the National League All-Star team and finishing eighth in MVP voting, Alonso changed his routine in hopes of improving. Most notably, he overhauled his conditioning program to lose 10 pounds while also doubling down on video studies and cage exercises designed to help him with his plate discipline.
“I could talk to you for hours about all of these things, but I think it would get pretty boring for most people,” Alonso said.
Boring or not, the early returns are plain to see for a player who leads the majors in home runs and ranks in the top four in RBIs, runs scored and slugging percentage. In spring training, Alonso discussed the possibility of joining Aaron Judge in the 60-homer club, which seems like a far-fetched dream for anyone — but maybe a little less now. If Alonso maintains his record record successes, this could be the most sustained hot period of his career.
“We fell short in the postseason last year,” he said. “I just wanted to do whatever it took to get better. If I could get better or contribute a little bit more or develop as a player, I felt like that could help the team. I feel like I did a good deep dive. Spring training was a good place to try these things and here we go.”