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It was Aug. 18 when it hit Pete Alonso. He had a shot at historical past, at changing into the sport’s all-time main dwelling run hitter as a rookie.
“I feel it actually set in after I hit No. 40 in Kansas Metropolis, the place it’s like, ‘Holy s–t, I acquired an opportunity at this,’ ” he recalled on SNY’s “The Cookie Membership” Mets podcast on Wednesday.
As a lot as Alonso wished the document — which he achieved final Sept. 28, when he went deep for the 53rd time, breaking Yankees slugger Aaron Decide’s document of 52 set in 2017 — he refused to simply search for the lengthy ball. The Mets had been nonetheless within the wild-card race.
“If there’s a man on second, I acquired to try to get a base hit and transfer him over,” he mentioned. “I can’t simply try to hit homers. I acquired to be an excellent hitter first. Chasing a private accolade and chasing a playoff berth I really feel like these are two completely reverse [things]. It’s a battle of curiosity, as a result of one may be very, very private and the opposite factor is extraordinarily team-related. For me, I attempted the very best that I might to be only a nice staff participant.
“Simply staying inside myself helped me get that likelihood to hit 52 and 53.”
Alonso hit his 50th on Sept. 20, however just one over the subsequent six video games. He was admittedly urgent. Earlier than that weekend sequence towards the Braves, Alonso spent additional time finding out their pitchers, as much as 90 minutes per night time, regardless that he had seen them so many occasions through the season.
“It was very spectacular, since you couldn’t even inform exterior the sphere that he was making an attempt to perform historical past,” Dominic Smith mentioned on the podcast. “I feel that’s what makes him nice and that’s why individuals gravitate to him. He’s only a nice dude and that entire run was superior. I had enjoyable from the primary dwelling run to the final.”