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Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports
After an incredible 2022 season for Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, the Mets’ superstar duo got off to a slow start over the first six games of the 2023 campaign. Going into Wednesday, Alonso was hitting just .136 and Lindor was hitting .111 as the team was coming off back-to-back shutout losses. Facing one of baseball’s best pitchers in Corbin Burnes, the Mets’ three and four hitters came through in a big way and gave the team a chance to salvage the final game of their series against the red-hot Brewers.
Lindor got the scoring started for the Mets in the first inning with an RBI double, his first RBI since his sac-fly on Opening Day against Sandy Alcantara and the Marlins. In the third inning with the Mets trailing 4-1, he drove in Starling Marte again with an RBI single. After Lindor’s RBI base hit, Alonso came to the plate as the tying run and launched a home run over the wall in right-center field to get the Mets back even. The duo came up again in the fifth inning, and Lindor recorded his third hit and second double of the game. With Lindor in scoring position, Alonso hit his second home run 424 feet over the wall in left-center field to give the Mets a 6-4 lead against the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner.
The Mets would ultimately drop the final game of the series in Milwaukee 7-6, but the performance from their two best hitters was an encouraging sign for an offense that has struggled out of the gate in 2023. The duo was just a combined 5-for-40 on the season before they went 5-for-8 with four extra-base hits, six RBIs and four runs scored on Wednesday.
For Lindor, his three hits were more than he recorded over the first six games combined. While he has not looked overmatched at the plate, the hits had not been falling for the Puerto Rican shortstop. A six-game sample size is probably too small to really worry, but Wednesday’s three-hit performance was an encouraging sign that the results will come sooner rather than later for the Mets’ three-hitter.
Pete Alonso becomes the first player to hit two home runs off Corbin Burnes in the same game.
— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) April 5, 2023
While Lindor stuck with his approach, Alonso made a fairly big change. Alonso switched to a bat with a thick knob for the 2023 season, but after starting the season just 3-22, he switched back to the axe handle bat that he used last season. In the first game with the old bat, Alonso’s decision paid off with two homers against one of the game’s premier starters. He also decided to shave his mustache that won’t be returning according to Pete.
It is no secret that the Mets’ offense will go as far as Lindor and Alonso take them. The two combined for 238 RBIs in 2022, the most by any duo in baseball, as the Mets finished fifth in all of baseball in runs scored. Their combined excellence lead to them both finishing in the top ten of NL MVP voting. While the team has a great supporting cast around them with the likes of Brandon Nimmo, Marte and Jeff McNeil, Lindor and Alonso’s ability to hit for both average and power makes them the keys for an offense that could use some more home run power in 2023.
The offensive numbers have not been pretty for the Mets to start the season. Their .208 average is 27th in baseball, their .634 OPS is 25th, and their five home runs are 22nd. The positive for this team is that with nearly the exact same group, they finished 2022 second in average and sixth in OPS. If Lindor and Alonso can build on Wednesday’s success and jumpstart their seasons, it would be a big boost for everyone in the lineup and could help the Mets get back to being one of the best offensive teams in baseball.