Pete Alonso homers in first Yankee Stadium swing for Orioles after 7 seasons with the Mets

"It’s awesome to kind of come in wearing new colors and it’s like all right instead of like a crosstown rival, now we’re a divisional rival," said Alonso, who left the Mets in December for a $155 million, five-year deal with Baltimore.

Alonso tied the score 1-1 in the second inning with a drive off Will Warren into the right field second deck. He homered for the second time in four games and is hitting .203 with five homers and 14 RBIs for his new team.

“He’s showing flashes of the Pete Alonso we all know and love,” Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz said before the game. “To me, it’s probably just getting used to the change of scenery, but also getting into the flow of the season as well.”

Alonso played his 20th game at Yankee Stadium and hit his eighth homer at the ballpark.

“You go down memory lane. There's a lot of things you think about just being here for so long,” Alonso said. “My first taste of professional baseball was playing for the (Brooklyn) Cyclones and then kind of working my way up from there.”

Alonso was not offered a contract by the Mets, who also allowed Edwin Díaz to leave and traded Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil after finishing 83-79 and missing the playoffs by one game.

“Both the Orioles as an organization and myself, I feel like we align and fit perfectly,” Alonso said. “When you have something good, you focus on it.”

Alonso said he never heard from Mets owner Steve Cohen or president of baseball operations David Stearns before signing with Baltimore.

“For me, having that respect from the guys that I was with every day, the guys that I was going to battle with so to speak, from the manager to the players, having that respect is obviously nice,” Alonso said. “But there’s no final conversation from a brass or ownership standpoint.”

A homegrown Met, Alonso became a Citi Field fan favorite. He was voted 2019 NL Rookie of the Year after hitting .260 with a major league-high and rookie record 53 homers along with 120 RBIs.

New York replaced him with Jorge Polanco, agreeing to a $40 million, two-year contract. Polanco has played two games at first base for the Mets and is on the injured list with a bruised right wrist. New York has used five first baseman and began Friday a MLB-worst 10-21.

“On paper, that’s not good,” Alonso said. “But I remember in 2024 things were very bleak and whatever from an outside perspective. Baseball is a long season. It’s a marathon. And you look back at the 2024 Mets, that could be a perfect example of yeah, it’s bad, but there’s five months left in the season. There’s always time.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB