Pete Alonso has made history with the New York Mets in 2019, already owning the Mets’ single-season home run record with 1 1/2 weeks left in the season.
That being said, the first baseman still has some history to make and increased his chances on Tuesday night when he hit a sixth-inning homer off Tim Melville.
With that home run, Alonso reclaimed sole possession of the majors home run lead with 48, which put him one ahead of Eugenio Suarez who currently has 47 on the year.
Suarez, 28, has been surging towards the top spot in the category over the last few months, with eight homers in his last 15 games. In the second half, Suarez has hit 27 of his 47 home runs as compared to 20 prior to the All-Star break.
Right behind him with 45 homers is Jorge Soler who has broken out in a big way in 2019, registering a .904 OPS with the Kansas City Royals. He has been making a late surge for the league-lead in homers as well, hitting four home runs just in the last week.
While he is currently tied with the presumptive American League MVP, Mike Trout, for the AL home run lead, Soler really needs only one more homer to claim the lead in that statistical category. Trout is out for the remainder of the season as he is getting foot surgery.
The last contender for the home run lead is Cody Bellinger, who has really cooled off in the season’s final month, with only two homers and three extra-base hits altogether. That being said, he very well could become the NL MVP still with his top contender for that, Christian Yelich, finishing the year hurt after fracturing his kneecap. Yelich is currently tied with Bellinger at 44 homers this season.
Based on the leaders currently, it appears that the MLB home run lead is pretty much a two-horse race, with Alonso and Suarez set to face off at Great American Ballpark this weekend when the Mets get there for the team’s final road series of the 2019 season.
Aside from currently having a one home run lead right now, another thing working in Alonso’s favor is that the Mets have one more game left this season than the Reds right now, giving Suarez fewer plate appearances to tie and potentially leap-frog Alonso.
Another record Alonso will be chasing down in the seasons final 11 games is the MLB rookie record for home runs in a season, currently owned by Aaron Judge with 52 back in 2017. According to Tim Britton of the Athletic, Alonso is now on pace to finish out the season with 51.
If Alonso was to finish the year with sole possession of the home run lead, he would be the first rookie to do so in the “modern era.” Only two rookies since 1900 have tied for the lead in Tim Jordan for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1906 (12 homers) and Mark McGwire with the Oakland Athletics in 1987 (49 homers).
Regardless of whether or not he ultimately reaches the rookie record or leads all of baseball in homers for the 2019 season, Alonso’s rookie year has been historic and he is well on his way to winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
