{"id":848057,"date":"2026-09-15T00:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848057\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:36:19","slug":"orioles-pete-alonso-greeted-warmly-in-return-to-citi-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848057\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles&#8217; Pete Alonso greeted warmly in return to Citi Field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">NEW YORK &#8212;<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/37498\/pete-alonso\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Pete Alonso<\/a> returned to Citi Field on Monday night with the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/bal\/baltimore-orioles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Baltimore Orioles<\/a> on the verge of his 300th home run and received a warm welcome from Mets fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;So many good memories here &#8212; I played with so many good people, talented people,&#8221; Alonso said. &#8220;It&#8217;s going to be interesting to see what emotions kind of bubble up, because you never can anticipate things that happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Alonso entered Monday hitting .269 with 35 homers, an AL-high 100 RBIs and an .863 OPS for the last-place Orioles. He had a 4.1 fWAR while his Mets replacements were at minus-0.4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He left the Mets after the 2025 season as a free agent to sign a $155 million, five-year contract with Baltimore. New York, which didn&#8217;t push to re-sign him, began the night on the verge of postseason elimination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I respect their decision &#8212; the guys running the team, it&#8217;s their prerogative to do whatever they think is best for them,&#8221; Alonso said. &#8220;Two things can be true at the same time: I&#8217;m very happy and appreciative of my time I spent as a Met and I&#8217;m beyond grateful and appreciative for the Baltimore Orioles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fans sporting Alonso&#8217;s old No. 20 with the Mets cheered and chanted his name during batting practice. Alonso exchanged greetings with former teammate <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/30382\/jose-iglesias\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jose Iglesias<\/a> as well as Mets owner Steve Cohen and his wife, Alex.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Mets made the playoffs twice with Alonso. He was drafted by the Mets and hit a team record 264 homers, topping Darryl Strawberry,<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I appreciate all the support and people keeping up,&#8221; Alonso, said. &#8220;I care so much about leaving it all on the field, pouring all the emotion I have and emptying the tank every night. And I&#8217;m glad that people appreciated that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Alonso entered Monday with 299 career homers, the same number as friend and former teammate <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/32129\/francisco-lindor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Francisco Lindor<\/a>. According to the Elisa Sports Bureau, Alonso could become just the third player to his 300th career homer against a team for whom he played in 1,000 or more games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Willie Horton hit his 300th career homer against the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/det\/detroit-tigers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Detroit Tigers<\/a> in 1979 while Torii Hunter did so for the Tigers against the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/min\/minnesota-twins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Minnesota Twins<\/a> in 2013.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">&#8220;I know &#8216;Paco&#8217; is chasing down that same milestone, so it&#8217;d be really cool if both of us could do it in the same game,&#8221; Alonso said. &#8220;That&#8217;d really be sick.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK &#8212;Pete Alonso returned to Citi Field on Monday night with the Baltimore Orioles on the verge&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[358699,110428,371,352,363,1189,99],"class_list":["post-848057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-358699","tag-alonso-pete","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-espn","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}