Pete Alonso has had an incredible rookie season — this has become a known fact. He single-handedly is out there breaking records, both within the franchise and externally. With him having hit his 50th home run in Friday night’s game in Cincinnati against the Reds, everyone is talking about how Alonso is on track to beat Aaron Judge‘s rookie home run record. Additionally, because of this home run, Alonso broke the Mets’ record for most extra-base hits in a single-season by a Mets player. He was originally in a tie with Howard Johnson (1989) and Carlos Beltran (2006).
But, there was another, smaller, not single-handed, record that was reached in Friday night’s game — that also had to do with extra-base hits. And that record came with the help of a friend, Jeff McNeil.
Has anyone compared McNeil and Alonso to mid-to-late ’00s David Wright and Jose Reyes yet? Well, maybe people should start to. The pair just reached a milestone Wright and Reyes achieved back in 2008. McNeil and Alonso are the second pair of Mets teammates who are younger than 28-years-old (age on 6/30) to record at least sixty extra-base hits in a season.
In 2008, Reyes had 72 XBH and Wright had 77 XBH. Currently, McNeil is at 60 and Alonso is at 81 XBH. There are still nine games left for the Mets to play in the 2019 regular season. Can McNeil get another 13 XBH to surpass Reyes and Wright’s numbers? I’ll let you decide that for yourself…but it’s not impossible. And if it doesn’t happen this season, there’s always next season. Let’s not forget that this is only the first year that the two are playing in the majors together.
It should be fun watching these two play together for years to come, just like it was fun watching a young Wright and a young Reyes play together.
