Pete Alonso has a chance to make history at home.
Alonso enters the Mets’ six-game homestand with 252 career home runs, tying him with Darryl Strawberry for the franchise record.
His next opportunity to set the Mets’ all-time home run record comes Tuesday night, when the Mets begin a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.
“It will be nice to do it here in front of our home fan base,” manager Carlos Mendoza said at Citi Field last Tuesday, when Alonso was sitting on 251 homers.
“Doing it here at Citi Field, it will be special, but obviously I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. I want him to go out there and just be himself. It’s gonna happen.”
Alonso, 30, did not homer in the final two games of the Mets’ previous homestand. He tied Strawberry’s decades-old record on Saturday night in Milwaukee, then went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI in Sunday’s series finale against the Brewers.
That set the stage for Alonso to potentially hit No. 253 at Citi Field, where he’s clubbed 12 of his 26 homers this season.
“The record is obviously something that is really special, and it’s meaningful, but right now in the heat of it, I’m not too focused on that,” Alonso said on Aug. 2 at Citi Field after hitting No. 250.
“I’m just focused on wins and what I can help this team do to win in each game. We’re in the thick of a playoff race right now. I’ll think of all the other stuff in the offseason or whenever I have time to.”
The Mets (63-55) were swept over the weekend in Milwaukee. They have lost seven games in a row and 11 of their last 12.
Entering Monday, the Mets were 5.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East and had fallen into the third and final NL wild card spot.
This week, the Phillies are playing the Cincinnati Reds, who began Monday only 1.5 games behind the Mets for the last wild card position.
After their series against the Braves, the Mets are slated to wrap up their homestand with a three-game set against the Seattle Mariners over the weekend.
Alonso has not homered in seven games against the Braves this season. Atlanta is set to start right-handers Spencer Strider (5-9, 4.04 ERA), Carlos Carrasco (2-2, 6.18 ERA) and Bryce Elder (4-9, 6.12 ERA) during this week’s series in Queens.
In his career, Alonso has homered once in 17 at-bats against Strider and once in eight at-bats against Elder. Alonso has never faced Carrasco, who was a Mets teammate from 2021-23.
Alonso, a homegrown Met in his seventh MLB season, already owns the franchise’s single-season home run record, which he set as a rookie with 53 in 2019. He is the only Met with three seasons of at least 40 homers, a feat he’s achieved three times.
He hit his 252nd homer in his 963rd game. Strawberry finished with the same total in 1,109 games with the Mets.
“Everyone here was happy for him,” Francisco Lindor said after Alonso tied Strawberry’s record. “It’s something that I know he doesn’t talk about much, but I’m sure he wanted it, and for him to accomplish that, it’s a good thing.”
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