Pete Alonso wears his coronary heart on the sleeve of his Mets jersey. It’s evident for all to see in the way in which he performs baseball, particularly at Citi Area.
So when Kodai Senga went down with a hamstring pressure after attempting to catch a excessive throw from the primary baseman on Thursday in a 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals, Alonso blamed himself for an harm that’s anticipated to land Senga on the injured listing.
“It just sucks. I mean, it sucks to be involved in that,” Alonso mentioned. “I mean, Senga, he’s one of our guys, he’s one of our guys here. You hate to see anyone go down and yeah, I just… It sucks being a part of that.”
Within the prime of the sixth, Alonso fielded a chopper off the primary base bag from Luis Garcia Jr. Senga went to cowl first base and referred to as for the ball, however Alonso’s throw went excessive and the right-hander needed to leap to make the catch, and get down shortly with out blocking Garcia’s path to the bag.
Getting full extension on the leap, Senga made the catch and tagged the bag for the second out within the inning, however he grabbed at his proper hamstring as his momentum carried him towards the dugout, the place he tumbled ahead in ache. Alonso rushed over and knelt down subsequent to Senga as he was attended to by the trainers, trying pained himself.
“The ball took me in the hole, and I think it was Garcia who hit it, and he’s a pretty good runner, so I was just trying to just get rid of the ball as quick as I could and as accurately as I could,” Alonso mentioned. “I mean, the throw was good because it was over the base, but obviously too high. He made an unbelievable play — an unbelievable catch. But, I mean, yeah, I just wish it didn’t happen.”
The infield consoled a visibly shaken Alonso whereas left-hander Jose Castillo warmed up on the mound. Supervisor Carlos Mendoza talked to him within the dugout after the inning, reassuring him that it wasn’t his fault. Senga himself needed to reassure his teammate, sending his translator, Hiro Fujiwara to the dugout to speak to Alonso.
Fujiwara relayed the message that it was the step proper earlier than the throw the place Senga felt the hamstring pull at him. But Alonso couldn’t shake the terrible feeling that he had contributed to an harm to the membership’s ace.
“It still doesn’t change the fact how I feel,” Alonso mentioned. “And I’m sure [it doesn’t change] how he feels right now.”
The 30-year-old first baseman put a heavy emphasis on enhancing his first base protection over the offseason and throughout the 2025 season. His Outs Above Common, a metric to measure what number of outs a participant has saved, was a career-worst -9 final season, and this yr it’s -3. Alonso makes some extremely tough picks, however felt that he wanted to “take care of the baseball” higher when it got here to a few of his throws.
His flip to Senga was precisely the kind of mistake he’s been attempting to eradicate.
After the sport, he was scribbling furiously in his journal, one thing he does after good video games and unhealthy. Teammates stopped to verify in on him, simply as they did shortly after the play. It was robust for all the crew to see Senga injured once more, for the reason that ace spent almost everything of final season on the injured listing.
First, it was a shoulder harm, then it was a left calf pressure in his first sport of the season final July. Oddly sufficient, that harm additionally occurred within the sixth inning with one out.
However with the way in which Alonso owns his feelings, there may not be something that anybody can say on this state of affairs that may alleviate his guilt.
“I’m appreciative of their support, for sure, but I mean, it still doesn’t change the result of the play, you know?” he mentioned. “I imply, yeah, OK, no matter, we obtained the out; however at what value? So, yeah, it doesn’t really feel good, ? I imply, I do know it’s the innocence of simply attempting to make a play, and yeah, clearly issues occur on the baseball discipline…
“I just wish it didn’t happen.”
