PORT ST. LUCIE — Pete Alonso took a huge cut on the first pitch he saw Saturday in the Grapefruit League and unleashed a missile that screamed: “Give me the first-base job!”
Never mind that Alonso mishandled a throw to first base a half-inning earlier, helping the Braves score two runs in an extended inning. Here was his raw power on display, with a two-run homer, and the Mets loved it.
“We’re called hitters, we are not takers, so if we get a good pitch we might as well take our chance at it,” Alonso said on a day the Mets beat the Braves, 4-3, at First Data Field in their exhibition opener.
Alonso’s two-run blast on a Touki Toussaint slider in the second inning nearly took out the cameramen stationed beyond the center-field fence. Alonso’s second and final plate appearance of the game resulted in a walk.
The 24-year-old could not have asked for much better at the plate as he begins his assault on the vacancy at first base. Todd Frazier, Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis are among the other players competing for the job.
Alonso hit 36 homers last season between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Las Vegas but never received a call-up to the Mets.
“[Toussaint] tried to throw that first pitch slider in there and it would have been a quality first pitch slider for a strike, and Alonso made him pay for it,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “We know he can hit a fastball just as good as anybody, so if he can show he can hit that breaking ball too, especially early in the count, he is going to be tough to pitch to.”
Alonso’s day started rough, as he dropped a throw from Amed Rosario in the second inning that put runners on first and second base for the Braves. But later in the inning, Alonso — who is trying to show he has improved enough defensively to warrant a major league job — jumped to keep a throw from Davis for becoming an error.
“I felt good, but that one that Rosie threw me, he made a hell of a play on it and I feel like I should have caught that one,” Alonso said. “I should have caught it, there is no excuse.”
Callaway joked that Alonso jumped higher as he approached the plate on his home run than he had saving Davis’ throw earlier in the inning.
“We need that energy, that is what we need, and Alonso brings that and it seems everybody else had that same energy going today,” Callaway said.
There were other players who caught Callaway’s attention: Robinson Cano went to the opposite field for a single to drive in the game’s go-ahead run in the third, and Jeff McNeil hustled to second base earlier in the inning on first baseman Drew Lugbauer’s error.
Davis singled in the second inning before Alonso came to the plate and got the sellout crowd of 7,134 buzzing with his homer.
Earlier this week Alonso went from “Peter” to “Pete,” and Saturday he got around to changing his Twitter handle to reflect the shortened moniker.
“It’s one of those things, everyone calls me ‘Pete’ in the clubhouse, everyone on the coaching staff, pretty much if anyone sees me out on the street,” Alonso said.
“It’s good to be on a first-name basis like that, it’s more informal. I just think I am very approachable and I think I am a nice guy, so anyone can just call me ‘Pete.’ If anyone calls me ‘Peter,’ it’s just like, ‘All right, you can relax a little bit.’ ”