Peter Alonso leads 51s to victory with 3 homers
When night games get underway at Cashman Field, the sun is bouncing off the walls and creating a glare that can make a tough obstacle for hitters in early innings.
With the sun no longer an issue, 51s first baseman Peter Alonso turned to hitting coach Joel Chimelis before his second at-bat Saturday with confidence.
“He said ‘Chimmy, it’s on now. I can see the ball,’ ” Chimelis said.
That was the beginning of Alonso’s big night in which he hit three home runs and drove in seven to propel the 51s to a 14-11 victory over the Aces on Saturday at Cashman Field.
“I’ve never had a three-home run game in my life so this is really cool,” Alonso said.
The first baseman, one of the Mets’ top prospects, hit his first Triple-A home run to left-center in the third inning.
He brought the 51s (32-43) back in the game in the sixth inning with a grand slam to right-center, making the game 11-10. He added a two-run blast to left in the eighth, helping make up for a pair of errors earlier in the game.
“I think he’s got enough power, he’s going to hit a lot of home runs all over the field,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “It’s good to see him stay on the ball a little bit longer. He’s got his first homer out of the way. You can see the confidence come. I think he was very disappointed in his defense and he made some adjustments at the plate to try to make up for it.”
Alonso spearheaded what was an offensive slugfest all night as both teams traded blows throughout the game.
The Aces (34-41) scored two runs in the first inning before the 51s responded with one in the first and one in the third — that coming on Alonso’s first home run of the night.
After Reno grabbed three more on a Kristopher Negron three-run blast off starter Cody Martin in the fourth, the 51s scored four in the bottom of the frame, with back-to-back-to-back doubles from Cody Asche, Colton Plaia and Patrick Biondi. They added another run on a Jeff McNeil sacrifice fly and one more on a Christian Colon homer to take their first lead of the night.
It was short-lived as the Aces scored four runs between the fifth and sixth innings, some of those unearned after some sloppy defense.
“If they put up a crooked number on the board, we’ve got to do a good job of fighting back offensively,” Alonso said. “They did a really good job of executing and capitalizing on pitches they got to hit and we just needed to follow suit and do the same thing. We just needed to hit.”
And he did that, blasting a grand slam to put the 51s down just a run.
“That one definitely felt good especially because we were down and that put us back in the ballgame,” he said. “I was really excited especially not just for it to put us back in the ballgame but I didn’t really help the team with a couple errors that I had but kind of made up for it and then some. I’m just happy I got a chance to put us back and (give us) a chance to win the ballgame in that situation.”
An inning later, Plaia’s two-run blast put the 51s on top again and Alonso’s third home run of the night in the eighth inning gave Las Vegas a bit more breathing room.
“After making four errors and playing some sloppy baseball, it’s good to see the guys continue to swing the bat,” DeFrancesco said. “I can’t say enough about Peter. Defensively, he had some setbacks today but came back, he drove in seven runs and hit the ball real well today. The expectations are real high for him but overall … in order to get 15 hits off a pretty good pitching team, you’ve got to give those guys credit.”
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