Another night, another powerful statement from Pete Alonso.
The rookie Mets slugger on Friday hit his 50th home run of the season, sending a towering two-run shot to deep right-center field as New York built a 5-0 lead against the Reds in Cincinnati.
Alonso continues to chase the rookie home run record. New York Yankees slugger Aaron Juge set it with 52 in 2017, but Alonso is now just two away from tying him with the remainder of Friday’s game and then nine full matchups still to go after that.
Reds reliever Sal Romano was the victim Friday, as he watched Alonso crush a 96 mph fastball some 437 feet at Great American Ball Park. It was Alonso’s 34th home run of at least 400 feet; the only other players with more than 30 such homers this year are the Los Angeles Angels‘ Mike Trout (32) and Kansas City Royals‘ Jorge Soler (31).
At 24 years, 287 days, Alonso is the third-youngest player to hit 50 in a season. Only Prince Fielder (23 years, 139 days) and Willie Mays (24, 137) were younger.
Alonso became the 30th player in major league history to have at least one season with 50-plus homers. The last non-rookie to hit 50 home runs in a season for New York’s teams was Alex Rodriguez, who had 54 en route to winning the American League MVP in 2007.
It’s been a record-setting season already for Alonso. He set the NL rookie home run mark with his 40th more than a month ago. The following week, he set the Mets franchise home run record with his 42nd.
New York (79-73) entered Friday 3.5 games back in the race for the second NL wild card spot.