In a season filled with amazing moments for New York Mets rookie Pete Alonso, he added to it in style on Thursday with a historic home run.
In the first inning against the Atlanta Braves, Alonso turned Julio Teheran’s fastball into a splash hit at SunTrust Park with a three-run blast for his 39th home run.
The splashdown bomb tied Cody Bellinger’s NL rookie record for home runs in a season and it took Alonso 49 fewer at-bats to reach the historic mark.
New York’s breakout rookie is now just 10 home runs shy of tying Mark McGwire’s rookie mark from 1987 with 49 home runs. If Alonso can get hot at the plate over the remaining weeks, he might even have a shot to tie or surpass Aaron Judge’s rookie record of 51 home runs from 2017.