Pete Alonso’s return to Citi Field delivered the kind of scene you don’t see every day, even in baseball.
The first time he stepped back onto the field in Flushing Meadows, the crowd greeted him with a standing ovation. The cheers kept rolling from there, a warm welcome for the man who had hit 264 home runs for the Mets over seven seasons before signing a five-year, $155 million deal with the Orioles last December.
Then came the moment that made Tuesday feel bigger than a regular game. Down a run in the ninth, Alonso got a forkball from Kodai Senga and drove it 414 feet for his 300th career home run.
He had already shouted instructions to Dylan Beavers to look for the forkball, and when he got the pitch, he didn’t miss. The blast tied the game, and the Orioles went on to win in the 11th on an inside-the-park homer by Coby Mayo.
For a milestone homer to land at Citi Field was notable enough. For it to happen in the ninth inning, with the Orioles trailing and still chasing a wild-card berth, gave it a stage straight out of a movie. Alonso even got the curtain-call treatment from the crowd after the game-tying shot, an unusual sight for a visiting player - especially one who had just hurt the home team.
“It’s crazy,” Mets pitcher Sean Manaea said. “Pete’s not here.
… He’s just not here. I know everyone loves him.
He’s the man. But he’s not here.
So to see the reaction from the fans like that, I don’t know. It was just different.
I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The night wasn’t finished there. The ball that reached the facade between the upper and lower stands in left field ended up with three young men who were Mets fans, but even bigger Alonso fans.
They brought it to him after the game, and Alonso responded with the kind of appreciation that has become part of his reputation. He shook each of their hands, gave each a Polar Bear hug, signed the backs of their jerseys, signed bats and balls, and invited them to Camden Yards, promising to take care of them.
That authenticity has been a talking point among his teammates, and it was on full display after one of the Orioles’ most emotional wins of the season.
On Wednesday, Alonso kept it going. He homered in his first at-bat and helped push the Orioles to a 7-1 win that completed a sweep of the Mets. He now has 37 home runs and 102 RBIs this season, production that has made him the central figure in Baltimore’s push.
The Orioles remain 2 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox, while also trailing Texas and Toronto, with nine games left. Alonso isn’t pretending the path is simple.
“There’s no magic number,” Alonso said. after Wednesday’s win. “We’ve just got to take it one day at a time.
Win against whoever’s in front of us that day, go 1-0 every single day, and I think that’s the thing. You can’t look too far ahead, especially where we’re at right now.
“You can’t look in your crystal ball. The biggest thing that we can do right now is go out there, play the best to our ability every single night, do whatever we can to win the game.
There’s no competing anymore. It’s just doing everything necessary to win the game that night.
It doesn’t matter if it looks good, doesn’t matter if it looks ugly. Got to win each night.”
It’s been a season full of swings, setbacks and frustration for the Orioles, but Alonso has kept getting louder as the year has gone on. He has become the force they needed, and if there is some kind of Hollywood finish waiting at the end, he looks like the obvious lead.
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