NEW YORK — Wednesday, for the New York Mets, was about getting back up.
A day after they were embarrassed, even ridiculed, by the Athletics in a fourth straight loss, New York rebounded with a much-needed 9-1 trouncing of Oakland. Pete Alonso, his nose scabbed over from a faceplanting on the infield dirt a night earlier, delivered his first four-hit night of the year, including a home run.
“This was an unbelievable bounce-back game for us,” Alonso said. “We just needed to respond. This was a really important game, big-picture.”
Alonso’s nose wasn’t all that had been bloodied of late for New York. The Mets had been silenced all weekend in an overwhelming sweep by the Seattle Mariners, and they’d returned home to one of their sloppier performances of the season in Tuesday’s loss. Austin Adams’ on-field celebration at their expense hit a nerve.
“The guys showed up, it was a different energy,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.
“Losing four in a row, feeling like we were a little bit against the wall, today everybody had a sense of urgency,” Francisco Lindor said, mentioning that Jesse Winker celebrated the team’s first hit “a little harder.” “We felt it. We felt we needed to create better vibes.”
OAK 1
NYM 9
FinalPete Alonso had four hits, David Peterson was solid once again, and New York snapped its losing streak at four.
The Mets are 62-58.
— Tim Britton (@TimBritton) August 15, 2024
The stars sparked it. Alonso’s first base hit led to a second-inning run and the Mets’ first lead since Thursday. Lindor added a solo shot the next frame — his 100th in a Mets uniform — and Alonso smashed one off the façade of the second deck an inning after that. Alonso’s two-run double to left in the seventh culminated a six-run uprising.
“It comes down to timing,” Mendoza said about Alonso. “It’s him getting to a better position, a stronger position, to fire.”
Alonso said it’s about capitalizing on opportunities in the zone earlier in at-bats — and not fouling back mistakes and getting himself into two-strike counts. “Hitting it hard, forward” is his shorthand.
He’d done that in his two-homer game in Colorado last week then looked as outmatched as any of his teammates during the series in Seattle. An RBI hit on Tuesday night presaged the outburst on Wednesday.
Alonso authors at least one incandescent streak each year: In each full season of his big-league career, he’s compiled a 30-game stretch with at least a dozen home runs, and usually a 1.000 OPS to go along with them. So far this season, he hasn’t hit more than eight long balls in any 30-game span. He had never posted an OPS of even .900 during a 30-game stretch — until his four hits Wednesday pushed him over that threshold in the last month.
“When Pete is hot, it can be very scary,” Lindor said.
“He can carry a team,” said Mendoza. “We’ve seen it. Hopefully, that’s the case here, where we can get Pete going to carry us for a few weeks, especially where we’re at on the season.”
Because it comes down to timing there as well. This is no time for the dilly-dallying dog days of August. The Mets have a chance to build some momentum this week against a pair of last-place foes before facing three of the best teams in the sport afterward, including squads from San Diego and Arizona that they’re chasing in the National League wild-card standings. There is no more important time, for him or the team, for Alonso to find that groove.
“It’s contagious,” said Mendoza. “If he gets going, he’s probably going to take pressure off the other guys.”
“For us to be in the postseason, he’s going to be a huge part of our success,” Lindor said.
After the game, Alonso was asked about his nose, the scabs already starting the healing process.
“I don’t know about looks,” he said, “but I feel great.”
(Photo of Pete Alonso: Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)
