There’s a brand new dwelling run king in Queens: Pete Alonso.
Alonso hit the 253rd homer of his profession on Tuesday night time towards the Atlanta Braves, breaking a tie with Darryl Strawberry to set the Mets’ franchise document.
The Citi Area crowd erupted as Alonso drilled a two-run homer towards Spencer Strider within the third inning.
The document had belonged to Strawberry since Could 3, 1988, when he hit his a hundred and fifty fifth homer, passing Dave Kingman’s prior franchise finest.
Alonso tied the document in Saturday night time’s 7-4 loss to the Brewers with a second-inning homer towards Tobias Meyers.
The Brewers have been accustomed to Alonso’s torment. American Household Area was the place he hit the go-ahead homer in Sport 3 of final yr’s NL Wild Card sequence, clinching the primary spherical for the Mets and sending them to the NLDS for the primary time since 2015.
Strawberry and Alonso may simply be thought of two of probably the most beloved Mets in historical past, although their profession paths couldn’t be extra completely different.
“He was a complicated kid who, thank God, got it straightened out, but with Pete, there was none of that,” mentioned Mets radio play-by-play voice Howie Rose. “I think in a sense, because Darryl became such a controversial figure, and there was so much extraneous activity surrounding him, he became a lot less totally embraced by the fan base than Pete has been. I mean, these fans love Pete unconditionally.”
Strawberry, an outfielder who grew up enjoying on the hardscrabble streets of South Central Los Angeles, was a part of the hard-partying, hard-charging 1986 Mets group that introduced the second-ever World Collection championship to Queens. Substance abuse points, authorized points, controversies and confrontations. Contentious negotiations with the Mets led to 1990 when he signed along with his hometown Dodgers.
“Darryl will tell you to this day that he never should have left New York,” Rose mentioned. “There was a deal to be worked out, even though Frank Cashen made it difficult. But Darryl had his issues then, as we all know, so a lot of his aggregate performance, over eight years, in retrospect, is framed against a lot of strife and a lot of unfortunate, not only incidents, but circumstances surrounding him off the field.”
Alonso, like Strawberry, was drafted by the Mets. A second-round select of the College of Florida in 2016, he endeared himself to Mets followers as a rookie three years later. It wasn’t simply his MLB-record 53 dwelling runs, it was the fervour and enthusiasm he performed the sport with. The 30-year-old Tampa native affectionately known as the “Polar Bear” embraced the Queens neighborhood from the beginning.
An influence-hitting first baseman on the sphere, in his postgame interviews, he got here off as an everyman. Between the shirtless Gatorade baths, the “LGFM” proclamations and the charity work finished by he and his spouse Haley all through the years, Mets followers thought of him considered one of their very own.
“For Pete, there is just this unconditional love on the part of the fanbase,” Rose mentioned. “I think a lot of that is returned in kind.”
The love remained at the same time as Alonso examined free company for the primary time final winter. In the end, he returned to the Mets on a one yr contract with a participant possibility for 2026. His dwelling run in Milwaukee doubtless stored him in a Mets uniform this season, with the followers begging the membership to signal their homegrown hero.
“I genuinely believe that he wants to stay here and finish his career,” Rose mentioned. “I know he does.”
Strawberry was inducted into the Mets Corridor of Fame in 2010, and his No. 18 was retired final season. Followers have since embraced Strawberry, and the 67-year-old has embraced Alonso.
“Records are made to be broken,” he lately instructed reporters in New Jersey.
Alonso hit his 253rd dwelling run in his 965th recreation throughout his seventh MLB season. Strawberry hit his 252 dwelling runs with the Mets in 1,109 video games over eight seasons.
By many measures, Alonso was already the best dwelling run hitter in Mets historical past.
The 53 dwelling runs he hit in 2019 stay the Mets’ single-season document, and he’s the one participant in franchise historical past with a number of seasons of not less than 40 dwelling runs, a feat he’s achieved 3 times.
Alonso steadily climbed up the Mets’ dwelling run leaderboard, passing Mike Piazza (220) for third place final August and David Wright (242) for second place in June.
“The record is obviously something that is really special, and it’s meaningful, but right now in the heat of it, I’m not too focused on that,” Alonso mentioned after hitting No. 250 earlier this month.
“I’m just focused on wins and what I can help this team do to win in each game,” he mentioned. “We’re in the thick of a playoff race right now. I’ll think of all the other stuff in the offseason or whenever I have time to.”
Initially Revealed: August 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM EDT
