Pete Alonso spent seven seasons turning Citi Field into his personal stage. On Tuesday night, wearing an Orioles jersey, he took one more bow there, and the crowd gave it right back to him.
Alonso hit his 300th career home run in the ninth inning, a 414-foot drive off Kodai Senga that tied the game at 3. Two innings later, Baltimore’s Coby Mayo delivered a three-run inside-the-park home run that put the Orioles ahead for good. Baltimore held on for a 7-5 win over the Mets.
The 28,097 fans in the building stood and chanted his name until Alonso stepped back out of the dugout for a curtain call. On the road. Against the team he used to play for.
“Everyone in the dugout was saying go out there,” Alonso said. “And they were right.”
The love affair had been building since Monday. The Mets played a two-minute tribute video before his first at-bat that night. He then walked up to “Layla,” one of his old walk-up songs, as “Welcome Back, Pete!” flashed on the scoreboard.
A Very Short List
Alonso hit a club-record 264 home runs for the Mets before signing a five-year deal with Baltimore this past December. Reaching 300 against his old team put him in rare company.
He became only the third player to hit his 300th career home run against a team he had played 1,000 or more games for. Willie Horton did it for Seattle against Detroit in 1979. Torii Hunter did it for Detroit against Minnesota in 2013.
| Player | Date | Former Team Faced | Team At The Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willie Horton | June 6, 1979 | Detroit Tigers | Seattle Mariners |
| Torii Hunter | June 16, 2013 | Minnesota Twins | Detroit Tigers |
| Pete Alonso | September 15, 2026 | New York Mets | Baltimore Orioles |
The number itself put him in older company too. Alonso’s 300th pulled him level with Hall of Famer Chuck Klein on the all-time list.
It also means his very next homer passes Rogers Hornsby, who hit .358 for his career and won Triple Crowns in 1922 and 1925. Klein won his own Triple Crown in 1933 with the Phillies.
| Player | Career Home Runs |
|---|---|
| Chuck Klein | 300 |
| Pete Alonso | 300 |
| Rogers Hornsby | 301 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 303 |
| Marcell Ozuna | 304 |
Mayo Turns A Misplay Into The Winning Run
The Orioles were two outs from a loss before Alonso’s homer tied it. That defeat would have dropped them four games behind Cleveland for the final American League playoff spot.
Mayo put Baltimore ahead for good in the 11th with a three-run shot to straightaway center field off reliever Jonathan Pintaro. Mets center fielder A.J. Ewing crashed into the wall chasing it, and the ball stayed in play long enough for Mayo to circle all the bases.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jeremiah Jackson also went deep for Baltimore. Andrew Kittredge closed it out for his 10th save.
The win pushed the Orioles to 74-78, three games behind Cleveland for the last AL playoff spot. The Mets dropped to 69-82.
Not Every Met Was Clapping
Mets starter Sean Manaea did not share the crowd’s enthusiasm. New York has underperformed all season, and Manaea said the ovation for an opposing player stung.
“To have that kind of reaction to an opposing player, could be anybody, is crazy to me,” Manaea said. “Pete’s not here. He’s just not here. So, to see the reaction from the fans like that, I don’t know, it’s just different.”
Fans also chanted for the firing of Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns after Alonso’s curtain call.
Three Long Island fans, Michael Shaw, Nick Maldarella and Chris Makarius, teamed up to track down Alonso’s milestone ball in the stands. Alonso met them after the game, signed their jerseys and gear, and offered them tickets and batting practice access for next season in Baltimore.
“Thank you, guys,” Alonso told them. “You guys are so kind. Thank you so much.”
Where That Pace Points Next
None of it saves the Mets season. But on a fading night for the roster, the loudest ovation went to a player in road gray. He is nowhere close to finished.
Alonso has hit at least 34 home runs in every full season he has played. He hit 53 as a rookie in 2019, then 37, 40, 46, 34 and 38 across the next five years.
He sits at 36 for 2026, with games still left before the season ends on September 27.
Strip out his shortened 2020 season and his still-unfinished 2026, and Alonso has averaged just over 41 home runs a season since he debuted.
Baltimore’s five-year, $155 million contract runs through 2030, when Alonso turns 35. Keep him at 35 to 40 homers a year for that stretch, and he lands around 440 to 470 career homers. That range sits close to Giancarlo Stanton, Jeff Bagwell and Vladimir Guerrero.
Getting to 500, and the exclusive club that comes with it, would take staying productive past this contract and into his late 30s. That is not a given for any power hitter, but Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez both managed it.
A run at the true inner circle, the 550-plus range of Mike Schmidt and David Ortiz, is a much bigger ask. It would take several more 40-homer seasons than his current age curve would typically suggest.
Alonso is not the only active slugger chasing this list. George Springer sits at 308, Shohei Ohtani at 310 and Mookie Betts at 311.
Further up, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman, Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are bunched between 378 and 397. Mike Trout sits at 425, and Giancarlo Stanton leads all active players at 456.
Alonso is younger than every one of them. Only Shohei Ohtani is close to his age.
Three hundred is just a number on a September stat sheet. Alonso is still climbing, and the names waiting above him only get bigger the higher he goes.
