Pete Alonso Stays Scorching Hot With Home Run No. 230

After an underwhelming walk year and a shell of the massive contract he once thought he might receive, Pete Alonso has come out absolutely firing in 2025.

While Juan Soto understandably took a lot of the fanfare, it’s been Alonso who’s been more locked in than anybody in the early going for the Mets. He’s been the story, and the star, and simply the best hitter in New York’s lineup thus far.

“I’m glad I have him,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said with a smile after the game. “I’m glad he’s with us.”

Alonso kept mashing on Friday night in West Sacramento, extending his hitting streak to five with a 3-for-3, seven-total-base performance. He hit his fourth home run of the season and the 230th of his career — putting him 12 behind David Wright for second on the all-time Mets home run leaderboard. He’s now 22 behind the Mets’ all-time leader, Darryl Strawberry.

The way Alonso’s going right now, even balls that aren’t well-hit are dropping for hits. He dunked a two-out single in the first inning at just 69.3 mph. He found his way on base again with a hit by pitch in the third.

Then, after a leadoff single by Soto in the fifth, Alonso drove one all the way to the left-center field warning track on the fly. It registered at 97.1 mph. It was a crucial hit at the time that brought Soto home, extending the Mets’ lead to 3-1.

Alonso’s next chance came with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, with the score still 3-1. He worked a 3-1 count before taking probably his worst swing of the day, one that popped it up into medium right field. Still, the exit velocity was 99.9 mph, per Baseball Savant, and it was just deep enough for Jose Siri to score on the sacrifice fly.

Alonso, who had three RBIs overall on Friday, now has 18 on the season in just 13 games.

But his biggest bang came in the eighth, when he collected the third in that trio of RBIs. He walloped a 90 mph cutter from José Leclerc over the SutterHealth sign in left field for a no-doubt solo shot. It extended the Mets’ lead to 7-4, giving them a little more breathing room heading into the final two frames — which, it turned out, they very much needed.

Pete Alonso tacks on an insurance run with a laser of a solo shot!pic.twitter.com/Xvlm0Zndqq

— Metsmerized Online (@Metsmerized) April 12, 2025

It’s still early, but Alonso is in Baseball Savant’s 100th percentile in xwOBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, and barrel percentage. His average exit velocity on batted balls is 98.1 mph, which ranks in the top 1% of MLB hitters. He’s batting .435 with a .957 slugging percentage against fastballs.

Alonso has collected a hit in nine of the 13 games he’s played so far this year. After Friday night’s show, his OPS sits at a shiny 1.260. After regaining some of the fanbase’s trust with that home run in the NL Wild Card Series, then finally re-signing with New York after a long and, by Alonso’s own admission, frustrating offseason, he’s come out in 2025 looking more like the franchise player he’d become known as.

The story now will be to see how Alonso does from here. His best full season came back in his rookie year, when he hit 53 home runs and posted a .941 OPS. If he can sustain levels close to that over an entire campaign, he could be looking at a sweeter pot of money in the near future. And if the Mets have an elite version of Alonso to complement the expected production of Soto, not to mention what Francisco Lindor provides, they could have a lineup that any team they face is going to be rightfully scared of.

The post Pete Alonso Stays Scorching Hot With Home Run No. 230 appeared first on Metsmerized Online.