Pete Alonso: The Mets all-time home run king!
Plus, the bats woke up as the Mets pummeled the Braves at Citi Field on Tuesday night
What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets’ offense came alive on Tuesday, blowing out the Braves 13-5 (box)
1B Pete Alonso mashed two homers to officially put himself atop the Mets’ all-time home run leaderboard - he hit no’s. 253 and 254 of his career on Tuesday
RHP Clay Holmes’s recent woes continued, as he surrendered six hits, five runs, and five walks across just 3⅔ innings
C Francisco Álvarez also had a two-homer day, turning in a 3-for-4 performance with four runs driven in
The Mets hit six total home runs on Tuesday, with additional contributions from LF Brandon Nimmo and 3B Brett Baty
LHP Gregory Soto and RHP Justin Hagenman were excellent in relief of Holmes, with Hagenman tallying five strikeouts across four scoreless, hitless innings
The Mets played a clean defensive game as well, with two double plays turned
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
Listen to this week’s JM Podcast as Mets Therapy’s Andrew Claudio commiserates with Rich about the Mets coming apart at the seams over the last two weeks:
Injury Updates 🏥
RHP Paul Blackburn will make another rehab start today for Syracuse
Playoff Race 🏁
With the Reds toppling the Phillies on Tuesday, the Mets are back within five games of the NL East lead. The Reds, however, continue to inch ever closer to the final Wild Card spot:
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have brought their 2025 playoff odds back up to 82.7%:
Who’s Hot? 🥵
Francisco Álvarez is slashing .304/.418/.652 with two homers, two doubles, a triple, and eight RBI since his return from Triple-A
Juan Soto is hitting .308/.438/.654 with three homers in his last seven games
Pete Alonso is hitting .350 with four doubles, six homers, 15 RBI, and a .900 SLG in August
Who’s Cold? 🧊
SS Francisco Lindor’s struggles persist, as he’s slashing just .107/.219/.143 with nine strikeouts in his last seven games
Play of the Game 🌟
“Pete Alonso stands alone! The Polar Bear on his own private iceberg.”
—Gary Cohen
He did it.
After tying the record on Saturday, Pete Alonso’s record-setting 253rd career homer set the tone for the rest of this game, and hopefully the rest of the season.
In 965 games and 4,121 plate appearances, it took Alonso about a full season less to accomplish the task than his predecessor.
Previous record owner Darryl Strawberry had high praise for Alonso ahead of the milestone:
“I think too many players [who] played professional sports always think their records should stand and no one should break [them], and that’s not true. There are going to be players that come along that will break their record, and I’m happy for Pete. Because he’s a good guy.”
It’s an achievement not soon lost on Alonso, nor Strawberry, nor the franchise.
Down on the Farm 🌾
LF Chris Suero (No. 15 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 K
CF Nick Morabito (No. 16 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
RHP Will Watson (No. 11 prospect, High-A): 4.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (64-55) vs Braves (51-68)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: LHP David Peterson (7-5, 2.98 ERA) vs. RHP Carlos Carrasco (2-2, 6.18 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
That’s more like it! ✍️
The Mets finally gave us something to celebrate — several things, even.
Heading into Tuesday’s matchup back on their home turf, the sun hadn’t been shining too brightly on this team. Losers of seven straight, this team was in desperate need of several major shocks to their system.
They got them last night.
The Mets got things started early. After allowing Atlanta an opening-inning run, the Mets answered right back with a three-run second inning. Cedric Mullins got the first run across with an RBI single that scored Pete Alonso, then Mullins was himself plated by a two-run homer from Francisco Álvarez.
Five more home runs would follow Alvy’s second-inning shot, including Pete Alonso’s record-breaking 253rd career homer…and his 254th, because why not?
With two outs in the bottom of the third, Alonso stepped into the box against the Braves’ RHP Spencer Strider, whom he’d doubled off of just an inning prior. On the first pitch he saw — a 95 mph heater straight down the middle — Pete launched a 113 mph line drive over the right field wall. It took such a low angle over the wall that no one in the booth thought the ball was going out until it did.
After Clay Holmes surrendered four Braves runs in the top of the fourth, Brandon Nimmo launched a three-run homer in the home half of the frame to snatch the lead right back. Once it was reclaimed, the Mets never surrendered it again, thanks to lockdown performances out of the 'pen from Gregory Soto and Justin Hagenman and more homers from Alonso, Álvarez, and good ol’ Brett Baty.
Something was clicking last night. Let’s see what it was.
What Went Right?
They Hit the Hittable Fastballs
We’ve lamented recently about the Mets’ recent struggles hitting down-the-middle fastballs. On Tuesday, however, they handled them just fine: they whiffed on just one of the many middle-middle heaters they saw, and took one more looking.
Of the 36 total four-seamers thrown to them in the zone, the Mets saw nine for called or swinging strikes. They put six of them in play for outs, but another five in play that resulted in runs. The fact that the Mets whiffed on a single heater all night and that it was an edge strike to Soto gives me some hope that maybe a team-wide adjustment is slowly but surely being made.
They Clutched Up
All 13 of the Mets’ runs yesterday were scored with two outs on the board — this is maybe even more welcome a change of pace than the improvements down the middle.
Though the problem stretches back even further, from only August 1st to August 11th, the Mets were hitting .178 with two outs regardless of runner situation. With runners in position, their team average skyrocketed to .286…but they only drove in eight runs in 33 opportunities. Compare that to, say, the Pirates, who hit .267 as a unit in that same span yet drove in 22 runs in 51 chances.
That shows you exactly how badly the Mets have been hitting lately.
They Kept The Ball In the Air
Of the Mets’ batted ball events in Tuesday’s contest, more than half involved hard-hit balls that were put in the air, be it as a fly ball or as a line drive. Only 13 of the Mets’ 39 batted balls stayed on the ground — a massive improvement from the 46.3% ground ball rate they’d been averaging since August 1st.
Additionally, the ball left Mets bats at the ideal exit velocity-launch angle combination (aka the 'LA sweet spot') on six of those hits. Unsurprisingly, four of them went for homers.
The Clay Holmes (and General Pitching) Problem
Though all the positive notes above are nice, the top brass needs to decide what to do with Clay Holmes.
I’ll spare you all the charts and heat maps and the like, because we all know the situation — the man is exhausted.
That’s not surprising or unexpected: he’s doubled his innings workload and is taking on a new role. However, though the wheels have been slowly falling off for a few weeks now, they’ve gotten incredibly wobbly as of late. In his last seven games, Holmes is 1-2 with a 5.79 ERA and 1.65 WHIP across 32⅔ innings. This was the second time in the last seven games he hasn’t made it out of the fourth inning.
Between Holmes and instantly embattled pitching lab project Frankie Montas, it’s time for the front office to make some big changes.
The first of those has already happened: moving Montas to the ‘pen should hopefully give him some time to work out whatever mechanical issues are plaguing him right now. I can see a return to a familiar environment being a good reset and real-time rehabilitation tool for Holmes.
The most concerning thing to me is his seemingly overnight loss of command. From the start of the season through July 31st, Holmes owned a 9.2 walk rate; for August so far, that number has ballooned up to 15.5%. Looking at his pitch maps, though Holmes was never exactly an edge-strike specialist, it does appear that his ability to consistently find the zone is waning on a game-by-game basis. Additionally, while his walk rate isn’t unexpectedly exploding, his strikeout-to-walk ratio has been steadily declining since as early as May:
May: 20 K–10 BB
June: 19 K–12 BB
July: 16 K–11 BB
August: 10 K–6 BB
That’s not an encouraging trend.
He’s also been leaning more heavily on his sinker, as he’s already thrown it a whopping 25% more in August than he did in July. The numbers tell me something’s broken with his sweeper, as its effectiveness plummeted last month (.391 BA, .565 SLG against in July) and we’ve barely seen it yet this month. Hopefully, a bullpen stint could remedy that as well.
So, while the Mets came away with plenty to be happy about yesterday, arguably the team’s most glaring hole was still on full display. This is a rotation full of starters that cannot consistently make it through six innings, and several of this year’s pitching projects have already proven imperfect.
There was plenty to enjoy last night — any game where franchise history is made at home instantly feels different. Who knows, maybe Pete breaking this record will actually rejuvenate the roster.
Still, there’s a lot of work left to do. Good to know at least some of it is doable.
Around the League 🚩
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his agent are being sued for $240M by a pair of real estate developers in Hawaii (The Athletic)
Guardians 3B José Ramírez also broke a franchise home run record Tuesday night with his 27th multihomer game
The Brewers continued terrorizing the league with a 14-0 obliteration of the Pirates; they are just the second team in MLB history with multiple 11-game win streaks in a single season
Great for Pete. How the Mets don’t sign him after this season would be a grave mistake. If you look at how Vientos plays first and Pete does who do you want there? He can dig throws out of the dirt and might be the best in the league which saves outs as throws are often off line from the infielders. He might not have range but he’s capable plus he posts. 162 you can pencil the guy in which also means he doesn’t get hurt. I believe he will give you 30-35 HRs for the next 5/6 years easily. Congrats to Pete. I hope a Met for life. I got nothing else.
Good for Pete 👏 it was good to see actual offense last night. Holmes has to go to the BP. DFA Stanek to make room.