Regular readers of this newsletter/podcast accompaniment knew last night that Pete Alonso didn’t just reclaim the major league home run lead all by himself with his blast in San Francisco, he tied a Mets team record with his ninth dinger in 20 games to start the season.
Dave Kingman got to nine homers in 18 games in 1976, while Neil Walker hit his ninth dinger of 2016, like Alonso, in game 20. In all three cases, the players appeared in each of the Mets’ first 20 games.
Walker stopped going deep so much after his blistering April for the defending National League champions that season. His 10th homer came in Denver on May 14, his 34th game of the season and the Mets’ 36th. As for Kingman, his 10th homer of 1976 came in his and the team’s 23rd game of the year, on May 4 to help Tom Seaver get a 5-3 victory over his future Reds teammates.
And Kingman stayed hot, as his 14 homers in his first 30 games of 1976 (he played the first 39, for the record), still the most in Mets history, ahead of… also Kingman, with 12 in 1982. Yoenis Céspedes hit 11 in his first 30 games of both 2015 (after coming to the Mets) and 2016 (taking the team lead from Walker in the latter), while Mike Jacobs got to 11 in 30 in 2005 and Carlos Delgado in 2006.
Alonso already has matched his own career-best start, which was nine homers in his first 30 games in 2019. The others he’ll join in double figures with one dinger in the next 10 games? Frank Thomas (1962), Ron Swoboda (1965), Todd Hundley (1997), Benny Agbayani (1999), Mike Piazza (2001), Richard Hidalgo (post-trade 2004), Cliff Floyd (2005), Carlos Beltrán (2006), and John Buck (2013).
And if you’re wondering about Darryl Strawberry, his best start was nine homers in his first 30 games of 1988, matching Alonso’s 2019, Jeff Kent (1994), Piazza (2000), Rod Barajas (2010), Walker, and Jay Bruce (2017).
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