Mets first baseman Pete Alonso's fourth straight game with a home run set the tone for New York in Thursday's 6-1 victory against the Padres, a series-deciding result that saw manager Carlos Mendoza's group (79-74) take 2 of 3 from San Diego (83-70) and hold the NL wild card's third spot by at least two games with nine regular-season contests left.
"He's locked in," Mendoza said of Alonso, whose two-out solo shot to center field off Randy Vásquez in the first inning put the Mets on the board at 1-0. "And when he's doing things like that, he can carry a team. We know he's a streaky hitter. We've seen it when he gets cold. And then when he gets hot, man, he gets on one of those streaks that he's pretty dangerous. And right now, where we're at — if we get that type of Pete Alonso, our offense obviously will benefit from it, of course."
Alonso, whose 1-for-2 afternoon at Citi Field included a third-inning walk and seventh-inning sacrifice fly that capped the Mets' 6-1 lead, is slashing .270/.345/.526 with 37 home runs and 121 RBI through 153 games.
"I mean, I'm just happy that I'm seeing stuff to hit in the middle of the zone," Alonso said. "With that being said, getting those pitches in the heart of the plate, not missing them, is big. I just want to keep having quality at-bats and stay in every pitch and just capitalize on mistakes."
With a trio of three-game series left on the regular-season schedule, led by this weekend's set against the Washington Nationals and Friday's 7:10 p.m. opener on SNY, Alonso appears to be rounding into form for the Mets' postseason push.
"You always want to play your best baseball at the end of the year," Alonso said. "And if we can continue to do that — it's not about how you start, it's not about how things happen in the middle, it's about how you finish. If we keep continuing to stay within ourselves and do the best we can and execute, then we're going to be in a really good spot."
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