He didn’t just want to crash Serathoni Dominguez’s 98-mph plane over the fence. Francisco Alvarez wanted to jump it above the clouds, above the sky, maybe even the Whitestone Bridge. He settled for a 421-foot jump. That was enough.
That gave the Mets a 4-3 win over the Orioles, giving them a 1-0 lead in a 10-game, 10-day hurdle race that will get them into Labor Day weekend and either cement their status as postseason contenders or accelerate the franchise’s outlook into 2025. Some blowouts are bigger than others.
This was a remarkable game, both for a team looking to overcome a minefield of Orioles, Padres and Diamondbacks, and for a young player who had been slogging through the grass for nearly two months. Until the moment the bat hit the baseball, Alvarez had only seen one ball go over the wall since June 26. He had given up 64 points of his batting average since then, and 206 points of his OPS.
“It’s been tough for him,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s been struggling, he’s 22 years old at the major league level. He cares a lot and he wants to win a lot, and when we’re struggling he feels like he’s in charge, he has a lot to do. His hitting has been better but we haven’t seen that a lot in games.”
They saw it now, and it was a wonderful sight as their teammates came out of the first base bench, eager to get around Alvarez, too impatient to wait for him to reach home plate. So half of them got to him halfway to first base. Alvarez didn’t mind. He wasn’t in a hurry. He had never hit a home run before. He was going to enjoy it.
“I was very excited. They are a very good team and we were able to beat them,” Alvarez said.
If you’re wondering why opponents sometimes have annoyed expressions on their faces… well, the Mets do. He does They enjoy their celebrations. There are “Oh my God” things that happen over and over again. There was Luis Severino and Alvarez on Saturday, partying like Larsen and Yogi in 1956. There was Alvarez on Monday night, barely breaking a four-minute home run.
This will probably get on some nerves, for sure.
But they are also real life-affirming moments. When you think back to last summer at Citi Field—and the first two months of this season, too—and remember how hard work was here without joy, it’s often a change for the better. As Alvarez said: “We’re home. We have to enjoy these moments.”
Or think of it this way:
On Memorial Day morning, the Mets were up 22-30.
On the morning of July 4, they woke up again at sea level: 42-42.
On Labor Day…
Well, those 10 games will tell you a lot about the quality of sleep the Mets and their fans will be getting a week from Monday, after two more games at Baltimore, four at San Diego and three at Phoenix. Funny thing. It shouldn’t be like this in baseball. Football? Sure. And the thing I miss most about “Mike and Mad Dog” is those annual conversations with the guys:
Dog: Week 1… Giants vs. Cardinals…
Mike: That’s a win.
Dog: One and One! Week 2. Giants, home of the Lions…
Mike: That’s a win.
Dog: Two and one! Week 3, Giants vs. 49ers!
Mike: Dog, that’s a loss…
Football? Sure. Baseball? No one in their right mind would dare watch every single game in each of the 162 stadiums, and no one except St. Francis of Assisi would even think of smiling and listening to all of this without running for the door. Frankly, St. Francis himself might be begging you to stop by April 15th or so.
However, in small specimens, it is difficult to resist.
In this small sample, the Mets won 1-0. Mendoza saw that his young ace—who had scored one goal in 54 days—had made it 3-0 and decided: Let’s give him the green light.
“I appreciate it,” Alvarez said. And soon the ball was rolling toward Cambria Heights. They had lost one game in a 10-game series, with nine games to go, and were 1-0 so far.
“It doesn’t matter who we face, it’s our job to win and we’ll treat it that way no matter what the result is. We’re not looking too far into the future,” Mendoza said.
By the time they start, Alvarez may finally reach home plate.
