In the interview room, Pete Alonso was searching for the right word to sum up what had to be the most heartwarming day of his career, for so many reasons.
After all, no matter what he says publicly, there were surely times last winter when the slugger believed he wasn’t coming back to the Mets, given the lack of traction in contract negotiations.
Yet here was Alonso at the home opener, soaking in all the love the Citi Field fans could heap upon him after his first-inning home run that set the tone for a 5-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, eventually taking a curtain call when the cheering wouldn’t end.
So what was the right word to describe such a memorable day?
Alonso went with “picturesque” a couple of times, speaking to the feel of a convincing win on a day the Mets dodged threatening skies and got temperatures warm enough for short sleeves.
Finally, when asked about his own personal feelings, Alonso tried again.
“It was very storybook-like,” he said with a smile.
Yep, that works.
Maybe there are other emotions Alonso would rather not speak to as well, of course. It’s only natural for him to have a chip on his shoulder and a determination to prove he deserved the long-term contract the Mets wouldn’t give him.
But to his credit, he hasn’t offered so much as a hint in that direction from the day in February that he re-signed for the two-year, $54 million deal that includes an opt-out after 2025.
Instead, he has shown up with a smile and gone to work, so far at least debunking any notion that he is in decline as a hitter after his numbers had fallen off the last two seasons.
“He’s locked in,” was the way Carlos Mendoza put it after Friday’s win. “When he’s not chasing, when he’s going to the opposite field, he’s really, really good.”
More than that, Alonso has been a difference-maker, something he wasn’t in 2024, at least until the postseason.
Already this season, he has hit three game-changing home runs, all of them to center or right-center, to the point Mendoza was making, which indicates he is not pressing and overswinging, which seemed to be the case last year.
All in all, after seven games, Alonso is hitting .292 with five extra-base hits, 10 RBI and a .750 slugging percentage. On Wednesday he hit three balls at 113 mph or higher off the bat, which is rarefied air for exit velocity.
Even more impressive, after his first two at-bats on Friday, including his home run and then a rocket ground ball to third, Alonso had hit the ball at 101 mph or harder in six straight at-bats over two games.
Yet, to fully appreciate how hot Alonso is at the moment, you had to see just how he hit that first-inning home run on Friday. Facing an elite starter in Kevin Gausman, whose nasty splitter puts hitters in protect mode with two strikes, Alonso fell behind 1-2, fouled off an inside fastball, and then flicked his bat at a 95-mph heater below the knees on the outside corner.
And it went 377 feet into the wind over the right-field fence.
According to Inside Edge, a statistical website, it was only the fourth time in his career that Alonso had hit a home run with two strikes on a pitch outside the strike zone.
That’s locked in, all right.
Yet long-time teammate Brandon Nimmo insisted he wasn’t surprised.
“That’s very much Pete,” Nimmo said. “He finds the barrel and it can leave any ballpark.”
However, scouts will tell you it wasn’t happening as much as usual last season. Heck, your own eyes told you that. He was hitting mistake pitches and not much else, rarely coming through in the clutch -- at least until sitting back on that fateful change-up from Devin Williams in Milwaukee last October.
But the point is, Alonso is capable of this. He hit some of his most impressive home runs to the opposite field early in his career, and he has talked about how he made some changes in his swing mechanics in the offseason to get more balanced again.
Maybe it’s as simple as that. More likely, Alonso learned something from playing for that mega-contract last year, maybe wanting it a little too much.
In any case, he looks like the best version of himself, which could mean 40-plus home runs and the type of protection for Juan Soto that could make the Mets’ offense a beast.
The sixth inning on Friday was an indication of the possibilities. With Francisco Lindor on base, the Blue Jays went to a lefthanded reliever, Mason Fluharty, and after Soto lined an RBI double to the right-field corner, the Jays had little choice but to intentionally walk Alonso.
That set the table for Brandon Nimmo, who has hit lefties better than right-handers the last few years, to deliver his own RBI double, before Starling Marte finished off the three-run rally with a hard sacrifice fly to center.
“That’s what this lineup can do,” said Nimmo, “especially with Pete swinging the bat like he is.”
That’s when Nimmo was asked about his own take on the Alonso contract saga.
“We were definitely worried [that Alonso wouldn’t be back],” he said. “But we don’t have to worry anymore.”
Finally, an NL scout texted me with an observation that added some notable perspective: “I thought Soto was a stone-cold lock to be the first Met intentionally walked this season. Not Alonso.”
There is a long way to go, of course. But on Friday, Alonso deserved to savor all the cheers and chants from the fans, all the hugs and handshakes from teammates that made this a day to remember. Storybook indeed.
