After a long hard summer for the Mets and their fans, they finally have something they can really cheer about.
Pete Alonso homered twice and drove in four runs, reaching 40 homers and 100 RBI for the second consecutive season as the New York Mets beat the first-place Seattle Mariners 6-3 on Sunday.
Jeff McNeil also left the park, after finishing a homer shy of the cycle Saturday night, and the Mets took two of three from the Mariners to hand them their first series loss since August 11-13 against the Baltimore Orioles.
The Mariners began the day leading the AL West by one game over the defending champion Houston Astros and two over the Texas Rangers, who have been floundering as of late.
Alonso can do much more than just hit home runs. He hit an RBI single in the first inning prior to his two-run blast in the third made him the fifth player in major league history with at least three 40-homer seasons in his first five campaigns, joining Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner and Eddie Matthews as well as Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols.
Alonso’s solo shot in the seventh gave him 100 RBI for the third time. His 41 home runs are tied for the second-most in a season in franchise history with Todd Hundley and Carlos Beltran. Alonso holds the team record with 53 long balls as a rookie in 2019.
Francisco Álvarez had an RBI single for the fourth-place Mets (63-74), and lauded rookie Ronny Mauricio went 1 for 4 with a single in his third big league game. Mauricio was the seventh player in team history to begin his career with consecutive multi-hit games.
Tylor Megill (8-7) on the season, gave up three runs in 5 1/3 innings. Adam Ottavino allowed a pair of baserunners in the ninth before striking out J.P. Crawford to capture his eighth save.
Dominic Canzone and Mike Ford hit back-to-back homers in the fourth for the Mariners.
George Kirby (10-9), who had not started in the rotation since August 23 due to an illness, gave up four runs (three earned) in just three innings of work. He threw 73 pitches, including 52 in the opening two frames, his most in the first two innings of a game.
Teoscar Hernández extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a fifth-inning single for Seatle. Julio Rodríguez’s 15-game hitting streak went by the wayside as he went 0 for 4.
The series in the ‘Big Apple’, New York was a homecoming for several Mariners. Dominic Leone, who grew up in Connecticut, was claimed off waivers from the Angels on Thursday, threw 1 1/3 innings for Seattle, the third team for whom he has pitched this season at Citi Field. He signed with the Mets in May before being dealt to Los Angeles before the trade deadline on August 1. Kirby grew up in Rye, a little more than 20 miles from Citi Field, and Justin Topa, who earned the win Saturday, played his collegiate ball at Long Island University after graduating from high school in upstate Binghamton.
