Pete Alonso came back to Citi Field on Tuesday, September 15, and did exactly what you’d expect from a man who hit 264 of his home runs there: he went deep. A solo shot off Kodai Senga in the ninth inning tied the game 3-3 and brought the Mets crowd to its feet. The next day, MLB’s Sarah Langs put the moment in its proper frame.
With 301 home runs through his first eight MLB seasons, Alonso is now just the third player in baseball history to reach that number that fast. The only two ahead of him are Ralph Kiner (329) and Albert Pujols (319) — and both are in Cooperstown.
The Number That Changes Everything
The week was already a story before the stat dropped. Alonso signed with the Baltimore Orioles in December 2025 — five years, $155 million — and this was his first trip back to Citi Field as a visitor. Mets fans had been cheering him since Monday the 14th. The home run gave them a concrete reason to stand and call him out of the dugout.
Baltimore won the game 7-5 in 11 innings, capped by an inside-the-park home run from Coby Mayo. But Langs’s stat turned the anecdote into history.
Kiner, Pujols, and the Polar Bear
The list is short by design:
- Ralph Kiner: 329 — hit them between 1946 and 1953, winning the NL home run title in each of his first seven consecutive seasons, a streak no other hitter has matched.
- Albert Pujols: 319 — reached that number in his first eight seasons with the Cardinals (2001–2008), widely considered the most dominant offensive start to a career in the modern era.
- Pete Alonso: 301 — started his count with 53 home runs in 2019, the all-time MLB rookie record, and has never hit fewer than 30 in any full season since.
Alonso is also the all-time home run leader in Mets franchise history, with 264 of his 301 hit in a New York uniform. He became the 171st member of the 300-home run club overall — but the only one to get there in eight seasons alongside Kiner and Pujols.
Where He Stands in 2026
With the Orioles this season, Alonso has 36 home runs and 101 RBI in 152 games — the best RBI total in the entire American League. The Statcast numbers back it up: a 93.9 mph average exit velocity and a 13.9% Barrel rate, meaning nearly 14 out of every 100 balls he puts in play are hit at the ideal combination of angle and speed to do serious damage.
The gap between Alonso and Pujols is 18 home runs; between him and Kiner, 28. He won’t catch Pujols this year, but the distance is closing. He’s under contract through 2030. This conversation is just getting started.
What Citi Field Said Without Words
The clearest moment of the week wasn’t the stat — it was the stadium where he hit 264 of those home runs giving a standing ovation to the man who left. The ovation was for the player. The Langs number is for the record books.
