Pete Alonso Hits 300th Career Home Run at Citi Field, Mets Fans Cheer Him On As Orioles Beat New York

Pete Alonso came back to Queens this week wearing gray pants, and Mets fans could not have cared less whose uniform he had on.

Alonso, who signed with the Baltimore Orioles last December after the Mets did not aggressively pursue keeping him, made his first trip back to Citi Field as an opposing player Monday and Tuesday, September 14 and 15. Both nights featured extended ovations for a player the team let walk.

On Monday, a crowd of 35,800 stood and chanted Alonso's name before all four of his plate appearances, according to the Associated Press. The Mets played a nearly two-minute tribute video before the game, and Alonso tipped his cap during pregame introductions. He went 0-for-3 with a walk in a 2-1 Orioles win decided by Gunnar Henderson's eighth-inning home run off Dedniel Núñez, the Associated Press reported. That loss eliminated the Mets from playoff contention.

After Alonso flew out in his first at-bat Monday, the crowd broke into chants of "Fire Stearns," aimed at Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, according to both the Associated Press and the New York Daily News. Mets interim manager Andy Green called the ovations "a powerful message" about how the city treats players who "sell out to win," the Daily News reported.

Mets rookie pitcher Jonah Tong, who started Monday's game, went further. "If it were up to me, they probably should have given him a little bit longer," Tong told the Daily News after the game, referring to the front office's decision not to re-sign Alonso.

Tuesday brought the moment fans had been waiting for. With the Mets leading 3-2 in the top of the ninth and one out, Alonso turned on a 2-0 pitch from Kodai Senga and drove it 414 feet to deep left-center for his 300th career home run, tying the score at 3-3, according to the Associated Press and Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated noted it was the 10th-fastest path to 300 homers in major league history.

Alonso tossed his bat and rounded the bases as the Citi Field crowd of 28,097 roared, then came out of the dugout for a curtain call while the game was still tied, an unusual scene for a visiting player. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said afterward he had "never really seen a curtain call for a guy wearing grey pants," according to Sports Illustrated. Fans again chanted "Fire Stearns" once the ovation died down, per the Associated Press and Metsmerized.

The game did not end there. The Mets tied it again in the 10th on a Marcus Semien RBI double, but the Orioles pulled away in the 11th when Coby Mayo hit an inside-the-park three-run homer off Jonathan Pintaro, a ball that glanced off rookie A.J. Ewing's glove near the center-field wall, according to the Associated Press. Baltimore won 7-5, its third straight win over New York in the series after taking the opener 2-1.

The loss dropped the Mets to 69-82 and handed them their third straight defeat, guaranteeing a losing season, the Associated Press reported. The Orioles improved to 74-78 and remained three games behind Cleveland for the final American League wild-card spot.

Alonso, for his part, downplayed the personal milestone. "I'm more stoked that we won the game," he told MASN after Tuesday's win, according to Sports Illustrated. "We're in a tight Wild Card race here with not a lot of games to go. We're playing for October right now."

Sports Illustrated's coverage leaned harder into criticism of Baltimore's front office, calling the Orioles' rebuild under general manager Mike Elias an "eight-year rebuild going nowhere" and suggesting fans should have wanted him fired well before Monday's fan protest was aimed at Stearns. That framing is opinion, not reported fact, but it reflects a real split in how the two fan bases are processing the same series: one mourning a homegrown slugger it let leave, the other wondering if the team that signed him can still make the playoffs.

Alonso and the Orioles close out the series Wednesday against Mets right-hander Robert Stock, with Baltimore's Chris Bassitt on the mound. The Orioles still need help to catch Cleveland for the last AL wild-card spot with fewer than 20 games remaining.