By Matt Musico

It’s not even November yet and we’ve already run out of ways to describe just how insane of a season New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso had in 2019. He summed it up very nicely and professionally at the end of the year, saying that this stretch of 162 games was the most fun he’s ever had.

The kind of season he put together was also like none we’ve ever seen from a player donning the orange and blue in Queens.

His 53 dingers are a new Mets’ record and an MLB rookie record. He’s also the first Met and first rookie to win the MLB homer crown. Through 693 plate appearances, the first baseman put together a .260/.358/.583 line with those 53 homers, 103 runs scored, and 120 RBI, helping him power to a 143 wRC+ and 4.8 fWAR.

Similar to how we recently looked at each Mets starting pitcher’s best single-game outing of the year, we can do the same for position players thanks to FanGraphs. When looking at game logs, there is a wRC+ associated with each performance. In games that Alonso started, he posted a single-game wRC+ of at least 526 five separate times, along with a special occurrence we’ll talk about at the end.

These five games stick out because none of his other performances crested over a 469 wRC+. Here are those games and the stats that made them possible, listed in ascending order.

September 9, 2019 vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

wRC+: 526

The other stats: 2-for-4 with 2 homers, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI

Alonso posted four different multi-homer efforts as a rookie, and two of them ended up on this list, which isn’t shocking in the slightest. This particular effort was the last of its kind for 2019, which yielded him number 46 and 47 en route to his historic overall body of work.

These two homers were interesting to see together because they displayed some of what Alonso does so well. The first bomb came off a breaking pitch that he was a little out in front of, but he’s so powerful that it still sailed nearly 400 feet over the left-center field wall. The second dinger, though, was a fastball that couldn’t get past him, as he displayed his quick hands and the ability to drop the barrel right on the ball for the line-drive homer. You can watch both of these homers right here.

August 18, 2019 vs. Kansas City Royals

wRC+: 550

The other stats: 3-for-4 with 1 double, 1 homer, 3 runs scored, and 2 RBI

Alonso did a little bit of everything at the plate in this performance, but the overall significance is once again tied to the homer, as his 40th dinger helped him surpass Cody Bellinger to set a new National League rookie record.

Like with most of the balls Alonso hit over the fence in 2019, he didn’t leave much doubt once it left his bat:

(Although I’m not talking about number 39 in the tweet attached to this one just yet, it’s also fun to look at.)

Clearly, 93 mph cheese up around the letters is something Alonso can handle without much of an issue.

August 15, 2019 vs. Atlanta Braves

wRC+: 558

The other stats: 5-for-5 with 1 homer, 1 run scored, and 6 RBI

When looking at how his hits were distributed throughout the season, Alonso enjoyed 32 different two-hit efforts and eight different three-hit efforts. Beyond that, he registered four hits in a game once and five hits in a game once. That five-hit performance is the focus here.

Half of the RBI he collected during this game came on one swing against Julio Teheran. It was actually his 39th homer of the year and tied the NL rookie record, so scroll back up for a second to watch him take a ball out over the plate to dead center, ending with a splash.

June 18, 2019 vs. Atlanta Braves

wRC+: 614

The other stats: 4-for-4 with 1 homer, 2 doubles, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI

…And here is that lone four-hit game that was just mentioned. Alonso contributed to what ended up being a 10-2 rout of the Braves that also included Jacob deGrom taking a shutout into the ninth inning before Freddie Freeman and Josh Donaldson each hit solo homers of their own.

For Alonso, though, he went oppo for his 24th dinger of the year, once again while facing Teheran:

The 24-year-old really enjoyed digging in against the right-hander this year. In just seven plate appearances, Alonso collected five hits (including the two homers we’ve discussed) and six RBI. His line against Teheran in such a small sample size is .714/.818/1.857 (!).

May 29, 2019 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

wRC+: 669

The other stats: 3-for-4 with 2 homers and 4 RBI

The Mets ended up losing this game in excruciating fashion thanks to a ninth-inning meltdown from Edwin Diaz, but at least Alonso gave us something to smile about for a short period of time, right?

His incredible power to all fields was on display, with his first homer landing in the stands beyond the right-center field wall after reaching over the plate to make contact. Later in the game, he used those quick hands to barrel a pitch up and send it down the left-field line and over the fence. Check out both of the homers here.

And it’s not like Alonso didn’t try to make his best single-game offensive performance as a starter count — his first homer gave New York an early 2-0 lead, and his second broke a tie to give the Mets a 5-3 lead.

Honorable Mention: July 20, 2019 vs. San Francisco Giants

wRC+: 1161

The other stats: 1-for-1 with a three-run pinch-hit homer, 1 run scored, and RBI

This performance technically doesn’t fit into our list because Alonso wasn’t in the starting lineup, but it’s hard to ignore that 1161 wRC+. The three RBI he collected pushed him past Darryl Strawberry for the Mets’ rookie RBI record, and more importantly, it aided in giving New York a much-needed blowout win after losing 1-0 in 10 innings the day before.

And, you know, as if coming off the bench in the middle of a game and hitting a three-run dinger isn’t impressive enough, Alonso went oppo to one of the most intimidating parts of Oracle Park.

It looks like this dude is going to be awfully special, but that’s nothing new. However, it was nice to relive some of his greatest single-game performances from a truly memorable year when talking about his individual performance.