Mets' Pete Alonso doubles as pinch hitter after tests show no break in hand
Mets' Pete Alonso hits a double against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the seventh inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York. Credit: Noah K. Murray
In what has become an annual occurrence, Pete Alonso avoided major injury after getting hit by a pitch, suffering only a bruise — no break — to his right hand.
After going through a full pregame routine Thursday, including fielding and throwing ground balls and taking swings in the batting cage, he entered the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks as a pinch hitter for Brett Baty in the seventh inning. He doubled and scored the tying run.
He feels “as normal as I can,” he said.
“Hand is doing really well for what happened,” Alonso, who absorbed a 93-mph fastball from the Dodgers’ James Paxton, said before the game. “I feel really lucky and really blessed. I didn’t really know what to think, but we got X-rays, a bone scan and an MRI — everything came out negative, so no breaks or anything like that. Right now we’re day-to-day, but I really feel like I got lucky and dodged a bullet. I’m really happy that it’s just going to be day-to-day. I feel very fortunate, very blessed for sure.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza said: “Everything came back clean.”
Mark Vientos filled in for Alonso at first base, then moved to third once Alonso got into the game.
Alonso suffered multiple broken hands in his early 20s, but his past few scares have proven to be just that. In each of the past three years — coincidentally, right in this late May/early June period — he has been hit there by a pitch and had to leave a game for a bevy of tests.
In 2022, after the Padres’ Yu Darvish got him, he was fine. Last year, when Atlanta’s Charlie Morton did the same, he wound up missing a couple of weeks with a wrist sprain, then slumped terribly upon returning. Now, he seems to have avoided significant issues.
“Every time it happens, it’s really different because there’s a bunch of small bones, tissue, ligaments and nerves and stuff,” he said. “Even though it’s the same incident happening, every single time is different. It’s case by case. As it happens, it all hurts and really don’t know until what the imaging tells you.
“It doesn’t necessarily hurt too badly. I feel very fortunate for what I’m managing right now as opposed to the worst-case scenario.”
Raley has surgery
Reliever Brooks Raley had surgery Wednesday: left elbow UCL reconstruction with internal brace augmentation, the Mets announced.
His season is over. He is due to be a free agent this offseason.
Personnel news
The Mets called up lefthander Danny Young from Triple-A Syracuse to take the place of righthander Jorge Lopez, who was designated for assignment following his in-game and postgame meltdown Wednesday.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
