OAKLAND — Think of the best seasons by the best hitters — any of them — in the history of the Mets. Who comes to mind? Darryl Strawberry a bunch of years in the 1980s. Mike Piazza right before or after the turn of the century. John Olerud in 1998. David Wright in ’07 or ’08, to choose two. Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado along with him. The list goes on.
Pete Alonso has topped them all in one of the categories he values most: runs batted in.
He highlighted the Mets’ 13-4 win over the Athletics on Sunday with a massive game: 4-for-5, a titanic two-run homer, a three-run double that was nearly a grand slam, three runs scored.
Those five RBIs upped his total to 128, a single-season franchise record and the most in the National League this year. He powered past the prodigious production of 1999 Piazza and 2008 Wright, who each had 124. Alonso is also tied for fourth on that list, by the way, with 120 in 2019, his rookie season.
Alonso began the day one RBI shy of tying the record. The Mets already led Oakland by five in the fourth inning when he stepped to the plate with Francisco Lindor (two-run double) on second and two outs. He greeted rookie reliever Norge Ruiz, who had just entered the game, by sending a slider into the second section of seats in left-centerfield.
At a projected 451 feet, Alonso’s 39th home run was his longest of the season.
The record was his. And then he extended it. With the bases loaded in the eighth, he lined a double off the rightfield wall, plating all three runs.
Lindor (three RBIs, three runs) and Eduardo Escobar (two RBIs) each had three hits. Every Mets starting position player except Darin Ruf (0-for-4, walk) reached base multiple times.
Max Scherzer, meanwhile, tossed a routine six innings in which he allowed one run, four hits and a walk. He struck out seven.
Most significantly, on a day when the Mets scored plenty and manager Buck Showalter had several relievers he wanted to get into the game, Scherzer reached his approximate pitch limit of 91 — a normal step up from his previous outing, setting him up for 100 or more next weekend against Atlanta.
By retiring his first two batters in the first inning, Scherzer ran his streak of consecutive outs to 27 — as many as one would have in a perfect game. Those came across three starts, though, dating to Sept. 3.
His biggest out was the last of the first. With two on and two out, Scherzer struck out Dermis Garcia. The Mets took the lead against lefthander JP Sears (3 2/3 innings, six runs) in the next half-inning and expanded on it shortly thereafter.
