Juan Soto has only just arrived in Queens, but he’s already sending a loud and clear message to the rest of Major League Baseball: Pitch around him at your own risk, because Pete Alonso is waiting right behind him. The New York Mets’ newest superstar didn’t hold back after Tuesday night’s 10-5 win over the Miami Marlins, where both he and Alonso feasted on Marlins pitching in brutally cold conditions at Citi Field.
“Whenever they don’t want to pitch to me I know I have a guy behind me that can make it worse for them, so I’m really happy about that,” Soto told SNY, tipping his cap to Alonso as the perfect protection in the Mets lineup.
It was the kind of one-two punch that makes this version of the Mets downright scary. Soto and Alonso each recorded two hits, with Alonso driving in four of the team’s ten runs. Miami’s pitchers had no answers, and Soto made it clear that trying to pitch around him only creates more problems for opposing teams.
The Mets, now 8-3 on the season and winners of six straight, are thriving in every phase of the game. Even the brutal spring weather in New York hasn’t slowed them down. Tuesday’s game was played in freezing winds and biting cold, but the Mets didn’t flinch. They remain undefeated at home, with Citi Field becoming a true fortress early in the year.
Pete Alonso made sure to emphasize the team’s no-excuses mentality afterward.
“Yeah, it’s cold. Yeah, it’s windy. So what? We’ve got to go out there, we’ve got to put our uniform on, and we’ve got to go win a ballgame,” Alonso said. “This could have been a really easy game to kind of just go through the motions, make excuses, but we didn’t do that. I think that was a huge statement game for us.”
The entire Mets roster has been clicking. Francisco Lindor—swinging the controversial “torpedo bat”—went deep again. Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil continue to deliver big at-bats and steady defense. The bullpen locked things down, with Ryne Stanek, among others, limiting Miami to just two hits after Clay Holmes exited.
“It’s more mental than anything,” Stanek said of pitching in the cold. “The physical conditions are what they are. … I think so much of it is, like, lying to yourself that it’s not cold.”
This Mets team, fueled by the star power of Soto and Alonso and the grit of a deep roster, is starting to look like a true contender in the National League. And with Soto already warning the rest of the league that walking him is basically asking for trouble, pitchers may soon have to pick their poison every time they face this lineup.
The Mets will try to complete the sweep of the Marlins on Wednesday. And if the first two games of the series are any indication, Miami is in for another long night.
