Pete Alonso breaks Mets' rookie home run record with 27th of the season

CHICAGO — Since 1983, Darryl Strawberry had stood alone as the most prolific power-hitting rookie in the history of the Mets. His 26 home runs that season set the standard for all of the homegrown standouts who have come since — the David Wrights and Todd Hundleys, the Edgardo Alfonzos and Michael Confortos.

In his first season, Pete Alonso needed less than three months to set a new standard.

Alonso hit his 27th homer, breaking the franchise rookie record, as the Mets lost to the Cubs, 5-3, on Sunday.

“I’m proud of it,” a subdued Alonso said after the Mets blew a late lead. “But I wish we won today.”

Strawberry congratulated Alonso in a statement issued by the Mets.

“What he’s done in a short period of time is most impressive,” Strawberry said. “No goal seems out of reach.”

Alonso’s 27th homer came in his 279th at-bat and his 77th game. Strawberry finished with 420 at-bats in 122 games in his rookie year.

Another major milestone is very much within reach: the Mets’ single-season homer mark. That is 41, set by Hundley in 1996 and tied by Carlos Beltran in 2006.

Alonso’s homer Sunday was a solo shot in the fourth inning off Cole Hamels, who in the first inning induced a double-play grounder from Alonso — offering a fascinating look into the fast-moving thought process of a major-league hitter.

“The first AB, he got me on some changeups,” Alonso said. “He got me to swing and miss on a changeup, then he got me to ground out into a double play with the changeup. He executed pitches well.

“He threw me two curveballs in the second at-bat to start off, then he thought he could go back [to the changeup] again, because it was a good pitch. Thankfully, I saw two of them in the previous at-bat. Saw it well enough and put a really good swing on it.”