The Pete Alonso show rolls on as the Mets blanked the Cardinals to take series

Where would the Mets be without their star first baseman?

New York Post

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾

• The shutout the Cardinals 3-0 at Citi Field on Saturday afternoon (box | highlights)

• Kodai Senga extended his scoreless inning streak to 19.2 IP after delivering 5.2 spotless innings in his latest start - his 0.79 ERA is the best in the National League, second best in the majors

• Pete Alonso delivered two more big hits - an RBI double in the second and a 443 foot blast to the second deck in left field for his sixth home run of the year

• Juan Soto singled twice and drove in a run in the second inning

• Reed Garrett, AJ Minter and Edwin Díaz combined for 3.1 IP of scoreless relief to help seal the Mets fourth shutout of the season

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Injury Updates 🏥

• C Francisco Álvarez (fractured left hand) went 2-for-5 with a run scored for Double-A Binghamton on Saturday

• INF Jeff McNeil (strained oblique) went 2-for-5 with a home run, single, and two runs scored today for Double-A Binghamton on Saturday

• INF Mark Vientos left Saturday’s game with groin discomfort. He is listed as day-to-day

• RHP Paul Blackburn (knee soreness) started for the Brooklyn Cyclones on Saturday and allowed a run on two hits in two innings

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Who’s Hot? 🔥

• Luisangel Acuña is now riding a seven-game hitting streak - he is hitting .375/.444/.500 with nine hits, three doubles, and seven runs scored

• 1B Pete Alonso has multiple hits in four of his last six games, during which he has recorded three doubles, a triple, two home runs and five RBI. Over his last 18 games, Alonso is hitting .391/.487/.844 with nine doubles, a triple, six home runs, 23 RBI and 13 runs scored

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Stat of the Day 📊

• Mets pitchers have totaled 200 strikeouts this year, tied with the 2016

  season for the sixth-most strikeouts through the team’s first 21 games in franchise history. Trails only the 2018 (221K), 2021 (219K), 2022 (213K), 2017 (208K) and 2024 (204K) seasons

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Imagn Images

Pete Alonso! 💪🏻

• His 16 extra-base hits through the team’s first 21 games of a season is tied with Jeff Kent (1994) for the most in franchise history.

• He is the first major league player since Anthony Rendon (16 XBH in 2019 with Washington) to have as many extra-base hits through their team’s first 21 games of a season

• His .356 batting average is the second-best in the National League, fifth-best in the majors

• Alonso leads the majors in slugging percentage (.753), is second with a 1.220 OPS, second with 230 wRC+, and fourth with 23 RBI

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Kodai Senga! 👻

• RHP Kodai Senga extended his career-high scoreless inning streak to 19.2 innings. He became the 10th in pitcher in franchise history to record three straight scoreless starts of 5.0 or more innings.

• His 0.79 ERA is the best in the National League, second-best in the majors (Chris Bassitt, 0.77 ERA)

• Induced seven swings and misses on his forkball on Saturday, and has a 47 percent swing and miss rate with that pitch this season

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Play of the Game ⭐️

With AJ Minter struggling with his command and two runners in scoring position in the eighth, Francisco Lindor made this sparkling spin-o-rama play on a ground ball deep behind second base to rob Alec Burleson of a two-run single and prevent the Cardinals from tying the game.

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• LHP Brandon Waddell (Triple-A): 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 5 K

• 1B Ryan Clifford (no. 4 prospect, Double-A): 2-for-5, HR, 2 RBI

• 3B Boston Baro (no. 14 prospect, High-A): 2-for-4, 2 R

• 2B AJ Ewing (no. 28 prospect, Low-A): 3-for-4, 2 BB, R, RBI

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR)

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Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (14-7) vs. Cardinals (9-12)

Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY

Starters: RHP Clay Holmes (2-1, 3.66 ERA) vs. RHP Sonny Gray (3-0, 3.13 ERA)

When: 1:40 PM EDT

Where to Watch: WPIX

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Where would the Mets be without Pete Alonso? ✍️

AP Images

There’s no question the Mets offense has been a major talking point over the course of the first three weeks of the regular season. They haven’t hit well with runners in scoring position, have been worse than that with two outs and runners in scoring position (although they did have two hits in that situation on Saturday in the second inning), haven’t gotten much out of three or four positions on the field, are getting even less than that from their designated hitters.

Long story short, it’s been a frustrating start for the Mets offense.

Having said that, where would this team be without Pete Alonso?

He is single-handedly carrying the Mets offense over the first month of the season, and has easily been the league’s MVP during that span as well. He might have to settle for a Player of the Month Award in the National League, at least for the time being, but needless to say, this is a different version of Alonso from a year ago.

Or really, a different player than he was before he hit that season-changing home run off of Devin Williams in the NL Wild Card Series.

We can talk about chase, we can talk about barrels, we can talk about all of the science that is making Alonso a better hitter and resemble the one he was before the 2023 season.

If you want to analyze that, here’s your chance to do so, because I am not here to talk about any of this today. See below and then read on.

This chart would indicate Alonso has been an absolute monster so far this season. But you probably didn’t need to see this chart otherwise know that:

Baseball Savant/StatCast

The intangibles - to me anyway - behind the science are not necessarily provable. He will say all the right things about why he is enjoying success, but actions of course speak louder than words.

And the actions to me are abundantly clear.

There’s a tenseness with Alonso that no longer exists with him at the plate. He’s relaxed, calmer, more poised, and simplifying the process at the plate. Sure, he isn’t chasing, but everyone knows not to chase, even if they do because they reacted wrong or thought wrong on the pitch selection in the third of a second they have to decide whether or not to swing.

And yes, he is unquestionably benefitting from the presence of Juan Soto, even if he is off to an inconsistent start. Soto is still on-base a ton which is creating more run scoring opportunities for Pete and narrowing the margin for error opposing teams have when he’s at-bat.

But it’s like that home run against Williams 6 1/2 months ago was his moment of zen at the plate. He has transformed into a different player since then, one which I could argue is a more dangerous one than he’s ever been.

So back to the original question: Where would the Mets be without Pete Alonso?

Well, probably not in first place. Sure, the pitching has been great, but the offense has been less than that outside of Alonso and that is putting it nicely. He has produced 27 percent of the teams runs so far this season, has produced a smidge less than a third of their home runs this season, and has been decisively more powerful than any player in the league who isn’t named Aaron Judge.

Remember - there’s only one player in the game who has hit more home runs than Alonso since 2019, and that is Judge. The haters over the last couple of years seemed to forget that and how important that has been to the offense and how important that is to the history of the franchise. There were some people who thought his best days were in the past, some people who thought he couldn’t handle it anymore in New York, and many thought the club would be better off by letting Alonso go and moving Mark Vientos to first and giving another shot to Brett Baty at third.

Yeah, ok.

I’m glad Alonso is back. I hope he is a Met for life.

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Around the League 🚩

• Devin Williams was handed a four-run lead in the ninth against the Rays in Tampa, blew it and the Yankees lost 10-8 in the tenth inning

• Adolis García hit a two-run walk-off home run to give the Rangers a 4-3 win over the Dodgers

• The Phillies nearly blew a seven-run lead in the ninth inning but held off the Marlins 11-10 at CBP

• The Rockies scored eight runs in the seventh inning, but still lost to the Nationals 12-11