Despite all their pitching injuries, the New York Mets continue racking up wins. The Mets shut out the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Friday night (NY 7, SF 0) to pick up their sixth win in seven games on their West Coast road trip. New York has won eight of their last nine games overall, and they have baseball's fourth best record at 14-7.
Leading the way for the Mets during this hot streak is All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso, who hit another home run Friday night, his MLB-leading 10th this season. Alonso leads baseball in home runs (10) and total bases (55), and is tied with Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez for the RBI lead (23). Only three other players have hit more than six homers in the early going.
"I just feel really good and in control right now, which is a really good feeling because I am taking pitches -- borderline pitches -- and just capitalizing on stuff in my zone," Alonso told the New York Post on Friday. "I feel like I am more of a complete player. I feel like I am playing well on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively, and I feel like I am running the bases well."
Alonso also went deep in Thursday's game against the Giants, which broke a tie with Dave Kingman and moved him into sole possession of fifth place on the franchise home run leaderboard:
- Darryl Strawberry: 252
- David Wright: 242
- Mike Piazza: 220
- Howard Johnson: 192
- Pete Alonso: 155 and counting
Alonso's 10 home runs are the most ever by a Mets player through 21 team games, and the most by any player through a team's first 21 games since Christian Yelich (11), Cody Bellinger (10), Khris Davis (10), and Eddie Rosario (10) all reached double digits in 2019. That season was the year of the home run, you may recall. League-wide home run records were shattered that year.
A year ago, New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge set a new American League single-season record with 62 home runs. He hit eight homers in the team's first 21 games. Barry Bonds hit 10 home runs in his team's first 21 games in 2001, the year he slugged 73 homers to set the MLB single-season record. Alonso is ahead of Judge's and Bonds' pace three weeks into the season.
The Mets and Giants will continue their four-game weekend series Saturday afternoon. San Francisco is sending ace Logan Webb to the mound. Alonso is 1 for 8 with a home run in his career against Webb, who has been uncharacteristically home run prone thus far this season (1.9 HR/9 in 2023 after 0.5 HR/9 from 2021-22).
