Pete Alonso hits two home runs as Mets beat Marlins

MIAMI — With two swings Tuesday, Pete Alonso helped the Mets to another win and etched his name into another spot in the history books.

His pair of home runs in a 9-4 victory against the Marlins brought him to 101 long balls in his career.

Reaching triple digits took him 347 games, the second fewest in major-league history. The only person to do it quicker: Ryan Howard at 325.

The next names on that list: Gary Sanchez (355 games), Aaron Judge (371), Ralph Kiner (376) and Ronald Acuna Jr. (378).

"To be able to get to those numbers as quickly as I did, it’s truly a blessing," said Alonso, who also hit his first home run in Miami in 2019. "But also there’s a lot of hard work that’s been put in basically throughout my entire life . . . Hopefully I can get to two, three, four, five, six hundred more."

Manager Luis Rojas said: "I can see Pete having just a great career, by God, at the end of it. It’s a good start."

No. 100, a two-run blast to left-center, came against Edward Cabrera in the first inning. No. 101, a solo shot to left, was off Taylor Williams in the ninth inning.

Those were the highlights of a generally ugly game, which nonetheless allowed the Mets — who have nine wins in 11 games — to keep pace in the NL East. They are four games behind first-place Atlanta.

The Mets (70-69) and Marlins (57-81) combined for six errors and seven unearned runs. Nine innings took 3 hours and 59 minutes. Miami had more hits, 10-6.

"We didn’t play our best baseball," Rojas said. "Games are like that sometimes. At the end of the day, we won this game."

The go-ahead rally in the sixth featured two Miami misplays, the latter of which came on Jonathan Villar’s ground ball to shortstop Jazz Chisholm Jr. Instead of a potential inning-ending double play, it was an RBI fielder’s choice — with no out recorded. Francisco Lindor followed with a two-run single.

Carlos Carrasco allowed four runs (one earned) and seven hits in five innings. He struck out four, walked one and avoided trouble with several flyouts to the warning track.

In the first inning, consistently his worst this season, he faced seven batters and threw 24 pitches (13 strikes). Not sure why he has trouble then, Carrasco said, "I’m glad we ended that inning with just one run."

Cabrera allowed four runs — and just one hit — in 2 1/3 innings. It was the third start of his career, second against the Mets. In the third, he walked three consecutive batters and hit two more — Michael Conforto and Javier Baez — with pitches to force in runs.

"We scored a bunch of runs that we shouldn’t (have)," Rojas said, "because of their mistakes."