Pete Alonso homers twice in Mets' blowout of Rockies
The Mets' Pete Alonso gestures to the bullpen as he circles the bases after hitting a two-run home run off Rockies pitcher Austin Gomber in the first inning of a game Thursday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
DENVER — Maybe this is the great awakening the Mets have been waiting for from Pete Alonso.
Periodically this season, they’ve seen flashes — a big game or a hot stretch or a show of immense power that inspires belief he’ll start slugging like the preeminent slugger he’s been for years. Each time, though, he followed that hint with something else, something worse, making for a season that — while fine enough — has fallen short of his own standards.
The Mets’ 9-1 win over the Rockies on Thursday afternoon featured another flash. Alonso hit a pair of home runs, including a 471-foot shot that represented the second-longest long ball of his career, to lead them to a series victory.
He is up to 25 homers and 63 RBIs. He’ll need a huge final seven weeks to hit his usual 40-plus, 100-plus marks heading into free agency this offseason.
“He’s been hot/cold at times,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I’ve been saying it for a long time: He can carry a team for quite a bit too. We saw it today, two balls that he hit pretty far. And that’s who he is. A lot of people have seen it before. Just hoping that he gets going here and he can show us the type of hitter he is.”
With the win, the Mets (61-54) hopped over Atlanta into the last National League wild-card spot.
Alonso’s first homer served as the climax of a rare opening sequence against lefthander Austin Gomber: four batters, four extra-base hits, four runs.
Francisco Lindor, Jose Iglesias and J.D. Martinez collected consecutive doubles before Alonso stepped up. Gomber gifted him a slider over the heart of the plate.
“I knew I got it,” Alonso said. “I didn’t really know how far it was going to go. I’m like, oh, wow, that’s probably — that’s definitely one of my best bolts.”
Alonso went deep again in the third, again off Gomber, this time a mere 454 feet.
He has 21 multi-homer games in his career. He has never gone deep three times.
“Homers can be happy accidents,” Alonso said. “Just a result of swinging at, capitalizing on a good pitch, hitting it hard to the big part of the field. Really happy with how I felt today.”
Jeff McNeil’s double was the Mets’ fifth extra-base hit of the inning. The Rockies (42-74) totaled seven hits the entire game.
“I was just sitting there in the dugout, watching those guys do their thing,” said lefthander David Peterson, who limited the Rockies to one run in five innings. “It’s always fun to watch. Pitching with a lead like that makes my job easier. I go out there and throw strikes and try to get them back in the dugout so they can hit again, and they just kept pouring it on.”
The Rockies vaguely threatened to make the game interesting just once, when they loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning. Brenton Doyle — the NL Player of the Month in July — shot a line drive into the left-centerfield gap. Ranging over from left, Tyrone Taylor made a running catch on the warning track, limiting Colorado to a sacrifice fly.
Peterson struck out the next batter, Kris Bryant, to escape the jam.
“Really, really good,” Mendoza said of Taylor’s catch.
Peterson’s outing represented a happy homecoming. He has lived in the Denver area since his family moved there when he was 12, and he had about 30 relatives and friends in a suite at Coors Field for his first professional appearance there.
Knowing pitching can be a hassle in the Mile High City, he waited an extra day to throw his pre-start bullpen session so he could do it in Denver, just to get a look at how his pitches played prior to getting on the mound in a game. They turned out to be more than fine.
“It was fun to finally do it,” Peterson said. “I wanted to finally go out there and pitch here. Always good to have family and friends in the stands.”
Notes & quotes: After getting hit by a pitch on his back, Harrison Bader was fine, aside from a red welt complete with an imprint of stitches. In the moment, he appeared to be furious, slamming his bat to the ground and kicking the baseball. “It got him good,” Mendoza said. “He was just very [ticked off] that he was hurting.” . . . Reed Garrett (right elbow nerve inflammation) will join the Mets in Seattle. They might not activate him from the injured list immediately, but it’ll happen at some point over the weekend.
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.
