Peter Alonso’s big night leads 51s past Sacramento
Recently, the Mets said Peter Alonso, their No. 2 prospect and the 51s’ first baseman, wouldn’t be called up as rosters expand on Sept. 1, even though Alonso has put up big numbers in Double-A and Triple-A.
In response, in a statement to the New York Times, Alonso’s agents called the decision “disheartening for Peter after producing an historically great season and exceeding every request from the Mets player development staff.”
So Alonso did the only thing he could: He got back to work.
On Friday, on a night where the Mets got shutout in San Francisco, Alonso went 4-for-5 with two home runs in an 11-2 win over Sacramento, San Francisco’s Triple-A affiliate, in the series opener at Cashman Field.
“It fires me up just to keep on working and keep persevering because everybody has their own journey,” Alonso said. “For me, it’s just a part of my story and I’m just going to use that as motivation going into the (Arizona) Fall League. … Hopefully, I’ll have a good Fall League and take that into spring.”
Alonso helped key a Las Vegas (69-68) offense that pounced early on Sacramento (54-83) starter Mike Connolly.
Connolly went just two-plus innings and gave up nine runs, eight earned.
“I think just seeing him last week, the guys felt pretty comfortable knowing that he wasn’t going to be overpowering,” hitting coach Joel Chimelis said. “His ball was going to be moving and by seeing him a few days ago, the guys were pretty comfortable and they knew that they weren’t going to be overmatched.”
In the first inning, Las Vegas scored four runs thanks to back-to-back RBI singles from Alonso and Dominic Smith and a costly error that plated two more runs.
Alonso added a two-run blast in the second and a solo shot in the sixth while Zach Borenstein and Colton Plaia also homered, both in the third inning. Each of them drove in two runs in the win.
“Up and down the lineup, we were putting some really good swings on the ball,” Alonso said. “Everything clicked on offense tonight.”
Starter Matt Gage threw better in his second start for Las Vegas than his first, going six-plus innings and giving up two runs on six hits while striking out 10.
“Offensively we got off to a good start, scored 10 runs in the first four innings,” Chimelis said. “Gage kept us in the game, worked pretty quickly, maintained good momentum, good tempo and after scoring those runs early on, we shut them down and it made for a good game.”
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