Photo Credits: USA Today
Pete Alonso continued his strong first two months of the season with another big day in the Mets’ 8-6 win Friday night.
The slugging first baseman went 2-for-2 with four RBIs, bringing his total up to an MLB-leading 45 on the season. That number breaks the Mets’ franchise record for most RBIs before Memorial Day, which was set by Bernard Gilkey in his 1996 campaign.
Alonso got his day started with a sacrifice fly to right field in the first inning, which drove in the first run of the game. In his second plate appearance, Alonso socked a slider from Bailey Falter over the left-field fence for a two-run homer, his 12th long ball of the season. With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Alonso smacked an RBI double off the fence in right-center field on an 0-2 pitch to extend the Mets’ lead to 7-0.
“It’s extremely satisfying,” Alonso said. “It means I have the right tempo in the box. I’m swinging at the right effort level at quality pitches, and again, just trying to help this team win as many games as possible.”
After hitting just .250/.316/.429 with four homers and 17 RBIs in April, Alonso has cracked eight homers and driven in 28 runs this month, which ties him with Willie Montañez for the most runs driven in by a Met in the month of May.
“I’m just trying to capitalize on opportunities and just be as consistent as I can every day,” Alonso said.
Alonso is now hitting .283/.348/.528 across 180 plate appearances on the season, and he is the only player in the NL with more than 40 RBIs thus far. His career highs for homers and RBIs, respectively, are 53 and 120, which he set in 2019 during his Rookie of the Year campaign. Last year, he had 37 homers and 94 RBIs in 152 games.
