Lennon: Alonso’s big night is better late than never

As long as the Mets have something worth fighting for, it's not too late for Pete Alonso.

There is no changing the past and there is no sugarcoating the fact that this has been a disappointing year for Alonso, whose first attempt to sign as a free agent at the end of the season is unlikely to fulfil his dream.

But Alonso has time to change the narrative and the strength to do the heavy lifting required to get the Mets where they need to go. The numbers from the last 5 1/2 months are now nothing more than filler in a Scott Boras binder. They're decent, but nowhere near high-priced.

For Alonso to burnish — and maybe even extend — his legacy in Flushing, those September swings are all that matters going forward. Of course, there's the not-so-insignificant task of filling in for injured Mets MVP Francisco Lindor, and Alonso has been working on that task this week, first during a clubhouse meeting on Monday and then at bat (home run, five RBIs) during Tuesday night's 10-1 win over the Nationals at Citi Field.

Alonso hasn't really been a Mets announcer this season — that's something he did more in his earlier years in Flushing. But with Lindor out and the team having to compensate for his back-related absence, the responsibility of rallying the Mets for a playoff run fell to Alonso. In those two days, he seemed up to the challenge.

“I just wanted to say something from the bottom of my heart to the guys,” Alonso said late Tuesday. “Because this place is really special. There's a great fan base here, a great city and I'm just really excited about the situation we've put ourselves in.”

“Four or five months ago, not many people would have seen us in this position. A lot of people didn't see us that way. And the fact that we're in this position is a huge credit to every single player here, the coaching staff, the organization, because we had that inner confidence.”

Alonso seemed to waver at times. He entered Tuesday with a .695 OPS for September – seventh on his own team – and his five RBIs in 14 games were tied with Harrison Bader. Overall, Alonso's 81 RBIs ranked 34th in the major leagues and his .218 batting average with runners in scoring position ranked 144th among 164 qualified players.

But by the time Alonso took the bat on Tuesday, all that was long gone. While he's no longer working with a blank slate, it's all front and center now, and Alonso delivered when the Mets needed him most against the Nats — if not in his typical early fashion. In the fourth inning, with the bases loaded, Alonso appeared to be on the defensive against left-hander Mitchell Parker, but he fought off a two-strike fastball and hit a two-run looping drive that landed gently behind first base, about a foot inside the free-throw line.

Alonso didn't break any Statcast records with it. It was clocked at 60.4 mph and totaled 162 feet, but it was still good enough to put the Mets ahead 3-1. Next time out, Alonso hit a double off the wall in right-center field and then scored on a double by Tyrone Taylor. As the sixth inning rolled around and the loss was a given, Alonso pulled off his usual performance, smashing a three-run home run into the left-field seats. The 375-footer was his 33rd of the season and the surest sign that Alonso might be ready to replace Lindor.

“We said guys want to step in when Lindor is down, and Pete is one of those guys,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “You've seen it before, I've seen it, that he can carry a team. And today he goes out there and has that type of game, he's that type of player, he's that type of hitter that can do damage.”

As for Alonso's personal farewell, Mendoza emphasized that the slugger's goals and those of the Mets are perfectly aligned down the stretch. The possibility that this could be Alonso's last home game in a Mets uniform only adds to the emotional tension of the week ahead.

“Hopefully he can do that for the next 11 games and well into October,” Mendoza said. “He has a chance to continue to do something special here. Look at his numbers … this is a pretty good season. But hopefully he can get going here and carry the team for quite a while because we're going to need him.”

Alonso has surely realized by now that there's no point worrying about the money he lost with a year under his career. But there's still a lot of potential this season, starting with qualifying for October — and staying in the playoffs for a while longer. Maybe people never thought the Mets would make it as far as Alonso said they would, but they're about to flip the script on a scale that even the players couldn't have predicted when they were 11 games under .500 in late May.

But it would be unwise to bet that the Mets won't fight their way into the playoffs — or that Alonso won't have a bat in his hand. That loud impact was felt again Tuesday night at Citi Field, and Alonso could be ready to make his presence heard from now through October.