On a day that New York Mets first-baseman Pete Alonso described as “unbelievable”, the 24-year-old rookie contributed a big base hit — the first of his career — helping to lead the Mets securing an important insurance run in their 2-0 Opening Day win over the Nationals.
Pinch-hitter and Alonso’s platoon (is that what we’re calling it?) partner, Dominic Smith, got things cooking with a one-out walk in the eighth, Brandon Nimmo struck out, bringing up Alonso, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts off of Nats starter, Max Scherzer — who looked jaw-droppingly good in his initial outing of the year.
Alonso fell behind 1-and-2 in the count, fouling off two straight offerings (a slider, then a fastball) from Washington right-hander Justin Miller before taking a 94 MPH on-the-black inside heater into center field, sending Smith scurrying to second and bringing up Robinson Cano, who would deliver his second run batted in of the game, giving the Mets a little breathing room in what was a tightly-contested game up until that point.
The slugging Floridian came out of the game for a pinch-runner (Keon Broxton) before Cano’s hit, but his impression on his coaches, teammates, as well as the fans, had already been made. After the game, Alonso shared a bit of his major-league debut experience, via Tim Healey of Newsday.
“I felt like I was walking on clouds up there,” he told the team’s media corps. “That was the most excited I’ve ever been to play a game before. It’s unbelievable.”
Dom Smith’s at-bat, kicking off the fireworks in the eighth against Scherzer, was nothing to scoff at, either. After getting ahead on the power-righty 3-1, Scherzer came down the inner-half of the plate with two consecutive four-seamers that Smith fought off before laying off a nasty changeup that didn’t appear to miss by much to draw a bases-on-balls and ignite the Mets’ contest-securing rally.
With what Pete Alonso and Dom Smith bring to the table for Mickey Callaway‘s squad — astronomical power quotient for the former and a solid glove and bat via the latter — the Mets could have the best of both worlds playing off of each other’s success and, in turn, increasing the quality of each other’s play.
That would be a win-win situation for all parties involved — players, team, and fans.
