Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

On a night in which the Mets failed to get much going offensively, it was Pete Alonso–again— who came through.

While the Mets lost 7-2 to the Cubs on Tuesday, Alonso launched his fifth home run in  the last seven games. And, with his 18th home run of the season, Alonso has now broken his own team record for power. During his historic rookie campaign in 2019, Alonso tied Dave Kingman‘s record for the most home runs in club history (17) through the first 50 games of the season. The Mets have played 49 games in 2023, and Alonso is out-pacing a season in which he hit a club-record 53 home runs, which was also a Major League Baseball record for rookies. 

On Tuesday, the Mets fell behind early—and while they’ve gotten comfortable playing from behind recently—it was a different story in Chicago. However, like clockwork, it was Alonso who got them on the board first in Tuesday’s game with a solo shot in the top of the fourth, cutting the Cubs’ lead to 4-1. Alonso’s fourth-inning home run had an exit velocity of 111.3 mph and went a projected 434 feet, meaning his home run, which traveled deep into the Wrigley Field bleachers in center field, would be gone in all 30 ballparks in the league. With 18 homers on the season, Alonso is already creating a gap between him and the rest of the league, as he now has three more dingers than any other player. 

Alonso, who hit a game-tying grand slam during last Friday’s night win against the Guardians, had another opportunity on Tuesday when he came up to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth inning.  Unfortunately, Alonso hit a hot shot that found the glove of Cubs’ third baseman Patrick Wisdom, who stepped on the base for a force out. Alonso did manage to drive in another run, though on the play, and he was responsible for both runs that crossed the plate on Tuesday. He leads the National League with 43 RBIs on the season a year after tying for the MLB lead with 131 RBIs a season ago.

Heading into last week, Alonso only had three home runs in May. Since then, he’s started to tear the cover off the ball. In the span of a week, Alonso has hit five home runs and drove in 12 runs. He’s not only helped the Mets turn their season around, but his recent power resurgence has given life to his. Even after this recent stretch, Alonso is hitting under .200 in May after hitting .268 in April, in which he had nine home runs and 24 RBIs.

It’s not a coincidence that when Alonso starts hitting bombs, the Mets start winning games. However, Tuesday night showed that the Mets are going to need more than Alonso to get going offensively on nights their starting pitching is non-competitive. In any event, this past week shows exactly why he remains one of the best power hitters in the game.