Pete Alonso’s 300th Homer Turns Citi Field on the Mets

Pete Alonso tied the Mets with his 300th home run in the ninth inning Tuesday, then took a curtain call at Citi Field. The crowd of 28,097 chanted his name, then chanted “Fire Stearns” at Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, and Coby Mayo’s inside-the-park homer in the 11th finished a 7-5 Baltimore win.

The Orioles were two outs from a loss that would have dropped them four games behind Cleveland for the last American League playoff spot. Alonso’s 414-foot swing made it 3-3, and the building treated a visiting first baseman like the franchise had never let him leave.

A Curtain Call, Then “Fire Stearns”

Alonso had gone hitless in his first seven plate appearances of the series. With one out in the ninth he got Kodai Senga, a former teammate now working late innings, and drove a solo shot into the left-field seats, his 36th homer of the year and the run that pushed his RBI total to 101.

He hurled the bat toward the Baltimore dugout and shouted as he rounded the bases. The Citi Field crowd, down from 35,800 for his return Monday, stayed on its feet until he came out of the third-base dugout and waved. Only then did the “Fire Stearns” chants start.

PETE ALONSO TIES THE GAME WITH CAREER HOME RUN NO. 300!!! pic.twitter.com/le0lexCJoH

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 16, 2026

Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said the dugout was fired up for Pete for a lot of different reasons, and that he had not really seen a curtain call from a guy wearing gray pants. Senga, speaking through an interpreter, said he had watched Alonso hit for years and that the noise made clear how loved he still was here.

Sean Manaea, who started Tuesday for New York, did not hear tribute. He heard a slight against the players still in the home clubhouse, on a roster he said has underperformed even as the men inside it work.

The guys in here work their tails off every single day and to have that kind of reaction to an opposing player, could be anybody, is crazy to me. Pete’s not here. He’s just not here. So, I know everybody loves him. He’s the man. But, yeah, he’s not here.

Sean Manaea, Mets pitcher, after starting Tuesday at Citi Field

The stands were not confused about who was at the plate. They cheered a ninth-inning homer that tied their own team because the at-bat doubled as a ledger. Francisco Lindor said Alonso got every ounce of love that he deserved. Love, in Queens this week, came with a personnel complaint attached.

Why the Mets Never Made an Offer

Alonso, 31, hit a club-record 264 homers over 1,008 Mets games after New York took him in the second round in 2016. He opted out of the last year of a two-year, $54 million deal after 2025, walking away from $24 million, and spent last December waiting on a long-term offer that never arrived as a formal bid.

The Mets, under Stearns, would not go past three years. Baltimore president of baseball operations Mike Elias, after missing Kyle Schwarber on a five-year, $150 million deal the Phillies matched, turned that money toward Alonso and added a million a year. On December 11, 2025, the Orioles finalized five years and $155 million, a partial no-trade clause, no opt-outs, and no deferrals.

HOW ALONSO LEFT QUEENS

1. June 2023: Alonso turns down a seven-year, $158 million Mets extension covering 2024 through 2030.
2. Winter 2024-25: He returns on a two-year, $54 million deal that pays $30 million in 2025 and includes an opt-out.
3. End of 2025: After a.272 season with 38 homers and 126 RBIs, he opts out of the remaining $24 million.
4. December 10-11, 2025: The Mets never put a formal offer on the table. Baltimore closes five years and $155 million.

Over those same seven years he will take home $205.5 million, counting the $20.5 million from his last arbitration season, the $30 million from 2025, and the Orioles guarantee. Alonso said the Baltimore meeting sat head and shoulders above everybody else, and this week he went further. He feels like Baltimore is home, and he hopes to finish his career as an Oriole.

First Base Fell From Second to 29th

The baseball cost showed up in the lineup card long before the ninth-inning roar. Stearns’ choice to replace Alonso was Jorge Polanco, who had almost no first-base history. Multiple injured-list stints and season-ending ankle surgery later, Polanco hit.148 with two home runs and a.431 OPS. He is still owed $23 million.

Jared Young has been the pleasant surprise, with nine homers and an.809 OPS against right-handed pitching, and club officials have said they are comfortable starting him next year in a platoon. Young is not Alonso. Last season the Mets ranked second in baseball with a first-base OPS of.860. This year they are 29th in baseball in first-base OPS, at .682.

THE FIRST-BASE SWAP IN TWO SEASONS

Alonso, asked about a Mets club that has talent and little to show for it, said you cannot always predict things and have them work out in a perfect manner. Sometimes, he said, a lot of talent just does not work out, and based on experience he thinks they will be fine in the future. The people chanting for Stearns after his curtain call were not waiting on that future.

Mayo Scored Standing After the Ball Got Away

Monday’s 2-1 Orioles win had already ended New York’s 2026 postseason. The Mets are 69-82 this season, fifth in the NL East, and Alonso received a tribute video, the walk-up track “Layla,” and standing ovations before he ever squared up a ball as a visitor. Jonah Tong was booed for walking him in the third. Tuesday was supposed to be quieter. A 414-foot solo drive off Senga made sure it was not.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jeremiah Jackson had gone deep in the second. Carson Benge’s solo shot in the third put the Mets in front 3-2, and that lead held until Alonso’s ninth. Encarnacion-Strand scored on a wild pitch in the 10th. Marcus Semien doubled home a run in the bottom half to make it 4-4.

Mayo, batting with two outs in the 11th, got an 0-2 pitch from Jonathan Pintaro and drove it to straightaway center. Rookie A.J. Ewing crashed into the wall, the ball glanced off his glove, and it rolled away while Mayo circled and scored standing up with a three-run inside-the-park homer. Bo Bichette singled in a run in the bottom of the 11th. Andrew Kittredge, earning his 10th save, retired Benge on a fly to deep center. Alex Hoppe, 1-1, was the winner. Pintaro fell to 2-2.

Baltimore is 74-78, three games behind the Guardians, who are 77-75 after a 7-6 win over the White Sox on Tuesday. The Orioles still have a pulse. Alonso got a beer shower in a road clubhouse that used to be the other one.

Horton and Hunter Got There First

Alonso is the third player to hit his 300th home run against a team for whom he played in 1,000 or more games. The group is small on purpose. Franchise faces do not usually take that swing in a visiting uniform, and they almost never get asked back out of the dugout for it.

THE 1,000-GAME 300TH

• Willie Horton, 1979: Hit No. 300 with Seattle against the Detroit Tigers, the club that had been his home.
• Torii Hunter, 2013: Did it for the Tigers against the Minnesota Twins, the team that raised him.
• Pete Alonso, 2026: Tied the Mets 3-3 in the ninth at Citi Field, his 124th homer in that park and the first in gray.

The Elias Sports Bureau also places him as the 20th player in AL and NL history to take No. 300 against any former club, a list that most recently included Andrew McCutchen on April 14, 2024. Alonso is the 19th active player at 300. The Citi Field piece of it is the part no spreadsheet captures: 123 of those 124 park homers came while he still dressed in the home clubhouse.

The Ball Came off the Second Deck

The milestone baseball caromed off the second deck in left and dropped into the first deck, where three Long Islanders, Michael Shaw, Nick Maldarella, and Chris Makarius, got to it together. Maldarella said they had talked on the way in about catching his 300th. He and Makarius each got a hand on it before they shared it with Shaw. Shaw’s line was simple: never leave a man behind.

Alonso met them outside the visitors’ clubhouse, signed a bat and a ball for each, signed the shirts they were wearing (Alonso Mets jerseys for Shaw and Makarius, a Carlos Delgado shirt for Maldarella), and offered tickets and batting-practice access at Camden Yards next season. He posed for a group shot and for photos with each of them. Shaw asked the only question the night had left. Who doesn’t love Pete?

Manaea’s answer is that love is easier from the stands than from a home dugout that just watched a former teammate tie the game. Alonso’s answer, after the beer shower, was that there is a lot of history here, and that it does not matter where and when if the swing helps his club win. Both things were true in the same building on the same night.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Home Runs Did Pete Alonso Hit as a Rookie?

Alonso hit 53 home runs in 2019, his first full season, and he has since added two Home Run Derby titles, in 2019 and 2021. He also won his first National League Silver Slugger Award in 2025, when he played all 162 games and posted an.871 OPS with 41 doubles.

Does Pete Alonso’s Orioles Contract Include an Opt-Out?

No. The five-year, $155 million deal has no opt-outs and no deferred money. It pays a $12.5 million signing bonus and an $18.5 million salary in 2026, then $31 million a year for the next four seasons, and it is the second-largest guarantee in Orioles history behind Chris Davis’ seven-year, $161 million contract from 2016.

How Many Players Have Hit 300 Homers Against a Former Club?

The Elias Sports Bureau counts Alonso as the 20th player in AL and NL history to hit his 300th home run against a former team. Andrew McCutchen had been the most recent, doing it for the Pirates against the Phillies on April 14, 2024, four years before Alonso’s ninth-inning swing at Citi Field.

How Many Active Players Have 300 Career Home Runs?

Alonso became the 19th active player to reach 300 home runs when he connected off Senga. Only two men, Ralph Kiner with 329 and Albert Pujols with 319, hit more home runs through their first eight major league seasons than Alonso has now.

The clubs close the series Wednesday night at Citi Field, Chris Bassitt against Robert Stock. Baltimore will still be three games behind Cleveland. The Mets will still be looking for a first baseman, and for a quieter building than the one that called their old one back out of the road dugout.