Pete 5, Nats 1

 

Pete Alonso celebrating one of his home runs on Friday night. @Mets.

The Mets got a pair of home runs from Pete Alonso, and a superb start from Max Scherzer, as they rolled to a 5-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Friday night at Citi Field.

Alonso's first blast came in the fifth, and he launched it into the second deck, nearly to where they installed the Porch, for a three-run shot that made it 3-0 Mets.

Then, after Luis Garcia got an solo shot in the top of the seventh, Alonso responded in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run shot the other way to left center field to open up a 5-1 lead.

Alonso now has 30 home runs on the season, which ranks third in Major League Baseball, behind the Angels' Shohei Ohtani, who has 39, and fellow first baseman, Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves, who has 32. 

This is the fourth time in his five-season career that Alonso has reached the 30-home run plateau, with the lone exception the 16 HR he hit in 57 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

That also gave him 70 RBI on the season, so he has a real shot to crack the 100 RBI mark for the third time in his career. He had 120 RBI in his first season, and a career-high 121 last season.

The one down mark for Alonso this season, likely due to injuries he has had along the way, is he is hitting just .220, down from .271 last season.

Max Scherzer, in what could be his last start as a Met, threw seven innings, in which he allowed just one run (earned) on six hits and two walks, with seven strikeouts. He is now 9-4 on the season, with a 4.01 ERA (earned run average).

The Mets, who traded their closer David Robertson last night in a sign they will be "sellers" at the deadline (click here for our report), improved to 49-54 on the season, and they have taken the first two of this four-game set with Washington.

Photo by Jason Schott.