Tag: Pete Alonso

Pete Alonso’s ‘Throw it again!’ taunt to Braves got thrown back in his face by Tyler Matzek

This backfired badly.

This sometimes happens with trash talk.

You chirp at an opponent, it’s a great piece of taunting … but then it completely backfires.

That was the case for Pete Alonso on Tuesday night. After hitting a mammoth home run off Bryce Elder against the Atlanta Braves, cameras and mics caught him yelling, “THROW IT AGAIN! THROW IT AGAIN, PLEASE!” at Elder. Whew!

Good taunt! Except that … when the Mets’ Drew Smith threw a slider that led to Marcell Ozuna tying the game, Braves pitcher Tyler Matzek yelled something from the dugout.

Want to guess what that was?

Yep, that whole thing backfired:

Former Gators slugger Pete Alonso on historic HR pace in 2023

Will a former Gators slugger be the next to hit 60 home runs in a season? He’s still on pace to do so after 53 games, but there’s a lot of season left!

If there is one thing that Plant High School in Tampa is known for it’s producing power-hitting lefties that end up playing for the University of Florida.

Senior (and future Gator) Robert Satin recently finished up his senior year with three career home runs, but the names most fans have heard of are none other Jac Caglianone and [autotag]Pete Alonso[/autotag].

Caglianone is in the process of rewriting Florida’s history books as he adds to his program-record 28-home run total throughout the postseason, and Alonso is on his own historic pace with 20 homers through 53 games. Just one year after Aaron Judge took the baseball world by storm, Alonso is flirting with a repeat (or better) year.

While it may sound silly to suggest that New York baseball fans are in store for another 60-homer season, the numbers back it up. He’s hitting a home run every 11.4 plate appearances this season and is averaging just over four plate appearances a game.

Alonso has played 161, 57, 152 and 160 games in each of his four seasons as a pro ball player, which means he likely has 100-105 more games in him this year, assuming he stays healthy. At 4.3 plate appearances per game, he’ll likely step up to the plate between 430 and 452 more times this season.

At his current pace, Alonso would finish the season with 59-60 homers, and that number could go up if he plays a couple of games more than expected. Alonso isn’t much of a contact guy, but the ball goes far when he does connect.

His career .259 average and .348 on-base percentage aren’t great, but he leads all of baseball with 166 home runs and 426 runs batted since joining the Mets in 2019.

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How Pete Alonso’s urge to poop led to a memorable home run

We’ve all been there, Pete.

We’ve all found ourselves in a situation where we’ve had to rush to the restroom.

It’s just that, in most cases, it doesn’t happen in the middle of an at-bat in a Major League Baseball game.

That’s nightmare situation apparently happened to New York Mets star first baseman Pete Alonso during a game against the Cincinnati Reds on May 10 at Great American Ballpark.

In an interview with Foul Territory, Alonso said he “mistimed” his pregame coffee.

“Middle of the first inning, I’m like, ‘goodness gracious, this is not good,'” he said.

Alonso then came to the plate in the top of the second, and the situation was really becoming dire.

“I said, ‘I don’t care where this pitch is, this at-bat is ending first pitch because I need to go,” Alonso said.

Luckily for the slugger and the Mets, that first pitch was a hanging slider that, to put it in Alonso’s own words, was “deposited in the seats.'”

That was one of his MLB-leading 19 homers this season, but unlike the others, this one wasn’t followed by high-fives from his teammates or a celebration at the plate. In case it wasn’t clear how uncomfortable he was, just look at the photo above from Alonso’s ensuing home run trot.

“As soon as I touch home plate, it’s straight to the bathroom.”

It was the best-case scenario for Alonso, and he said he’s not sure what he would have done if he had to become a base-runner, even saying that he may have opted to get himself picked off on purpose.

One thing’s for certain, though: Alonso made the most of a potentially dire (yet hilarious) situation.

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Pete Alonso is back to dropping casual F-bombs after mashing a walk-off HR

Alonso on a hot mic is an absolute treat to listen to.

In a tough season for the New York Mets thus far, they haven’t had much to celebrate. It’s mid-May, and after all of the offseason hype, New York is already 6.5 games out of first place behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East standings.

But a Wednesday win over the MLB-leading Tampa Bay Rays might have been a turning point. And Pete Alonso seems to know it based on his postgame reaction.

After mashing a walk-off home run to cap an extra-innings 8-7 comeback win, Alonso brought back a staple to those familiar with his exploits in New York: he said a casual F-bomb while praising the Mets’ victory.

(Warning: NSFW language in the video below.)

In a challenging year for New York, finding the bright spots might be tricky. Alonso getting it going like this and returning to his expletive-dropping roots should be a sight for sore eyes for Mets fans.

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Ump oddly charged Jeff McNeil with a strike because Pete Alonso walked back to first base

OK, this rule NEEDS to go.

If the first few hours of baseball for the 2023 MLB season are any indication, we’re going to see some weird situations play out when it comes to the new rules.

The New York Mets got a quick lesson in that on Thursday.

During the Opening Day matchup between the Mets and Marlins, some confusion sparked after home plate umpire Larry Vanover stopped play and charged a strike to Jeff McNeil. The violation in the case had nothing to do with McNeil. But instead, Vanover thought that Pete Alonso was taking too long to return to first base after McNeil’s foul ball. The penalty for that was a strike charged to … McNeil.

Alonso, McNeil, the Mets broadcast and manager Buck Showalter were all justifiably confused with the ruling. Alonso did walk back to first base, but it didn’t look like he was holding up the game.

Really, Vanover’s decision to call a violation in that spot, charge the strike and then explain the ruling to the Mets caused more a delay than Alonso’s quick walk back to first base.

Despite the extra strike, McNeil would get a hit in that at-bat to put the Mets up by three runs.

Fans also had plenty of thoughts on that ruling by Vanover.

Former Gator Pete Alonso making history in New York

Another day, another Mets record broken by former Gator Pete Alonso. The Polar Bear is looking like one of the National League’s best power hitters down the stretch.

As the 2022 MLB regular season draws to a close, former Gator [autotag]Pete Alonso[/autotag] continues to re-write the New York Mets’ record books. On Monday, he broke the Mets’ single-season record for runs batted in with 131, a league-leading figure.

“It’s a huge honor,” Alonso said following the game, according to The Athletic. “I wouldn’t be able to be in this position without my teammates. All year, they’ve been putting together unbelievable at-bats.”

Alonso also became the first Met to have two 40-home run seasons with the franchise. He sent No. 40 over the left-field wall on Tuesday, putting him just two shy of the National League lead. There’s little hope for Alonso to catch up to Aaron Judge’s major-league leading 61 homers, but a hot streak to end the season could help bring back both MVP awards to New York.

Alonso’s making a serious case for himself as one of the best hitters in all of baseball. His .270 average could use a little work, but he’s always on when the team needs him. With runners in scoring position, Alonso is slashing .302/.420/.679. His 1.100 OPS is fifth in all of baseball.

Even if he doesn’t win the award, Alonso’s season will go down as one of the best in Mets history. It’s a game of scoring runs, and there’s no one better right now than Pete Alonso at driving runners in.

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Umpire called 3 balks in one at-bat on Marlins’ Richard Bleier and MLB fans were stunned

Sooooo, does anyone know what a balk is now?

With a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning, the Marlins and Richard Bleier were set to close out a nice win on the road against the Mets (-1.5) on Tuesday night. Evidently, no one told Bleier or the Marlins that they would run into some extremely mystifying balk issues.

You see, when New York’s Pete Alonso tried to ignite a late rally, first base umpire John Tumpane called Bleier for a balk. Okay, sure. It happens. Then he called him for another balk. Uh, alright? But if Bleier broke the rule, he broke the rule, I guess. Then Tumpane called the pitcher for another balk. In one at-bat.

Okay, alright. Let’s slow down. What happened in this confusing scene at Citi Field?

You know an umpire’s call is weird (and probably a little out of bounds) if even the TV broadcasters are stumped as to what constitutes calling a balk three times out of the blue. (Note: Marlins manager Don Mattingly would be ejected for arguing the rulings.)

For reference, the MLB rule defines balks like this:

A balk occurs when a pitcher makes an illegal motion on the mound that the umpire deems to be deceitful to the runner(s).

I mean, there was one guy on base (who would eventually score thanks to all the balks) for Bleier. Do we really believe he made an egregious illegal motion three times in an inning? You know, three more than he’s ever been called for balks in his entire career?

Yeah, this was the definition of an umpire probably taking way too many liberties with a clearly defined but very subjective rule in practice. For what it’s worth, the Marlins went on to win 6-4. But I still fully understand why Bleier was so upset.

Everyone loves the classy, ‘boozy but subdued’ celebration by the Mets after their postseason berth

Pete Alonso said the Mets were very subtle.

The New York Mets clinched a playoff berth Monday night, earning a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2016.

New York defeated the Milwaukee Brewers behind a marvelous pitching performance by Max Scherzer, who earned the 200th victory of his MLB career. He had a perfect game through six innings, but his bid ended there because it was his first game back from injury.

It is no small accomplishment for the Mets to make the postseason, and nobody would have blamed them for celebration. Mets owner Steve Cohen, however, described the events as “modest” and that there will be far bigger celebrations when the moment calls for it.

Mets infielder Francisco Lindor said it was a “classy” celebration, per The Athletic’s Will Sammon. Watch how Mets designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach exemplifies that while casually sipping a beer:

Even though this is only their tenth postseason berth in franchise history, the guys acted like they had been there before. It was all very low-key and super chilled out.

That’s because, according to Mets manager Buck Showalter, these Mets are a “mature group” that stays in the moment. It’s not the first time that Showalter has used that phrase to describe his team.

That maturity led the Associated Press to describe their celebration as “boozy but subdued” after the victory. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso shared the same sentiment, using the words “very subdued” and “very subtle” before flashing a cheeky grin.

John Harper described why the Mets may emphasize this point (via SNY):

“If you watched from the beginning of this 2022 season, you couldn’t have been surprised that the Mets celebrated their postseason clinching in Milwaukee on Monday night in subdued fashion — sipping champagne from elegant glassware rather than spraying it wildly from oversized bottles.

They have been the epitome of professionalism all year, after all, and an over-the-top party would have been out of character for them when so much is still at stake over these last few weeks of the season.”

Harper wasn’t the only person to notice the choice to use glassware.

New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro also noted that the champagne was “distributed civilly” in glasses. He added that the Mets will have other opportunities “to splash and spray and shower each other” if they keep winning.

Several other reporters described the scene as “subdued” as well:

This former Gator to play for Team USA in 2023 World Baseball Classic

Former Gator and current New York Met Pete Alonso will represent the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

New York Mets first baseman and former Florida Gator [autotag]Pete Alonso[/autotag] committed to playing for Team USA in the 2023 [autotag]World Baseball Classic[/autotag] on August 17, according to MLB.com.

Alonso is in the middle of a career year at the plate as the Mets surge toward the playoffs as the likely winner of the NL East. He’s tied for fourth in the majors in home runs with 31 and is tied for third in runs batted in with 105. Those numbers rival his 2019 stats when he won Rookie of the Year, and he’s certainly among the best power hitters in all of baseball.

“I’m really excited. It’s an honor to be a part of Team USA,” Alonso said. “There’s a lot of really amazing guys on the team so far. It’s a great opportunity, and I just feel lucky to be a part of it. … It’s an incredibly fun event. I’ve always wanted to play in it. It’s an honor to play for the stars and stripes.”

Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. will be the team’s hitting coach during the international event, and that should only help Alonso improve as a hitter. Team USA is loading up on talent, and pitting All-Star teams against each other for two weeks is a good way to help re-popularize the game.

Alonso driving in Mike Trout, Mookie Betts and Bryce Harper is the kind of thing you typically only see in MLB: The Show gameplay, so baseball fans are in for a treat.

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The Mets are so lucky this year fans wanted to believe Eduardo Escobar and Pete Alonso were holding onto lottery tickets

No, the Mets weren’t swapping around lottery tickets on the mound during a game.

Everything’s coming up New York Mets, isn’t it?

After years of being the butt of many baseball fans jokes, the Mets are actually a good and fun team to root for this year! Of course, there’s still time for things to completely collapse in typical Mets fashion, but so far so good.

The hope for the Mets is at an all-time high right now, which is why many baseball fans were quick to believe their eyes during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday. With the Mets leading 6-0 at the top of the ninth with bases loaded and two outs, manager Buck Showalter made a mound visit to swap pitchers in a key spot. Cameras then caught Eduardo Escobar and Pete Alonso handing Showalter a handful of cards that looked, at first glance, like lottery tickets.

While they do look similar to the scratch off lottery tickets you’d get from your grandparents at Christmas, those pieces of paper are actually defensive alignment cards! These cards are used to help players position themselves against specific batters rather than memorizing that information or getting it from a coach in the dugout with hand gestures.

Instead of lottery cards, it’s clear Escobar and Alonso are swapping out their alignment cards with a new pitcher coming in for the Mets. But hey, considering the Mets have been incredibly fortuitous this season, maybe they should be thinking about buying into the lottery at some point!

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