Pete Alonso didn’t collect a milestone homer in his return to Citi Field Monday night.
However, he and his Baltimore Orioles teammates did get the win they needed to stay on the periphery of the American League wild-card race.
Alonso and the Orioles will look to lock up a series win Tuesday night, when they visit the Mets in the middle contest of a three-game interleague series.
Right-hander Shane Baz (6-15, 4.05 ERA) is slated to start for the Orioles against Mets left-hander Sean Manaea (5-7, 4.79).
Gunnar Henderson hit the decisive homer in the eighth inning on Monday as the Orioles earned a 2-1 victory.
Henderson homered two pitches after Alonso struck out in his fourth and final plate appearance. Alonso, who socked a team-record 264 homers for the Mets in his first seven major league seasons, was showered with standing ovations while going 0-for-3 with a walk in his first game at Citi Field since signing a five-year deal with the Orioles last December.
“Those were awesome — I mean, it’s much appreciated,” Alonso said. “I think it provided a lot of energy to the game, and I thought it was a really good environment for us to play in.”
Alonso nearly hit his 300th career homer in his second plate appearance, when a prodigious shot down the left field line sailed foul.
Henderson’s blast to right-center field five innings later helped the Orioles (73-78) win for just the fourth time in 13 games and pull them within three games of Cleveland for the final American League wild-card berth. The Guardians (76-75) fell to the Chicago White Sox 7-3 on Monday.
“I’m just excited for (Tuesday),” Alonso said. “We’re three games out of a playoff spot, so it’s exciting baseball. Hopefully we can keep winning games and get our chance to play in October.”
Any hopes the Mets (69-81) had of playing in October officially ended on Monday, when the loss knocked them out of wild-card contention. New York, which never recovered from a 12-game losing streak from April 8-21, is in last place in the National League East, a half-game behind the Washington Nationals (70-81).
The Mets haven’t finished last since 2003.
While Alonso leads the AL with 100 RBIs and is on pace to play in all 162 games for the third straight season, just three members of the Mets’ Opening Day batting order — Bo Bichette, Brett Baty and Carson Benge — have avoided the injured list.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor and left fielder Juan Soto have combined to miss 108 games due to quad and calf injuries, respectively. Jorge Polanco, who was expected to replace Alonso at first base, made just two appearances at the position and hit .148 while playing just 37 games before undergoing season-ending ankle surgery last month.
“You see him on the other side like, ‘Wow, those are great numbers, that’s Pete Alonso,'” Lindor said. “But at the same time, you look in our clubhouse and you say the guys that we have are capable of helping us win ballgames. It’s just we haven’t stayed healthy and we haven’t put the season together.”
Baz earned a win in his most recent start, when he allowed five runs over 5 2/3 innings in the Orioles’ 9-5 victory over the Guardians on Wednesday. He won his lone career start against the Mets on June 15, 2025, when he tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings to help the Tampa Bay Rays produce a 9-0 victory.
Manaea last pitched on Sept. 8, when he took a perfect game into the sixth inning before the Miami Marlins got to him. The left-hander wound up charged with four runs on five hits over five-plus innings, but he recorded a victory as the Mets prevailed 7-5.
Manaea is 0-1 with a 9.49 ERA in three lifetime starts against the Orioles.
–Field Level Media
