Pete Alonso spares Buck Showalter criticism for sitting Mark Vientos
Mets' Pete Alonso gestures to the dugout as he rounds the bases on his solo home run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Say what you want about Buck Showalter’s questionable lineup choices for Thursday’s series finale against the Rays -— more on that a little later — but the manager got a big one right.
Staying with a sickly Pete Alonso, who’s looked like a NyQuil commercial this week, has been a cure for what’s been ailing the Mets. His third homer in as many games — this one a soaring 446-foot rocket past the Apple — helped deliver Thursday’s 3-2 victory over the Rays, incredibly the team’s first series win since April 19 against the Dodgers.
Then again, Showalter letting Alonso convince him to remain in the lineup probably didn’t require much arm-twisting on the first baseman’s part. Even at full strength — such as it is — the Mets’ offensive struggles have approached crisis stage through the season’s first seven weeks. Willfully subtracting Alonso from that group was not something Showalter wanted to remotely consider, as long as his cleanup hitter could still grip a bat without requiring immediate medical attention.
“If I’m out there, I’m going to shoot my best bullet,” said Alonso, who’s been battling a nasty sinus infection. “Always give it 100%. I just don’t want me not feeling well to be an excuse for a lack of performance. I just want to approach it how I normally do, just go out there and play the best I can, as hard as I can, and whatever happens, happens.”
On Wednesday night, Alonso delivered the 10th-inning game-winner, a second-deck shot to left that launched the Mets’ first walk-off dance party of the season. For that one, Alonso somehow found the strength to turn on a 98-mph fastball like it was sitting on a tee.
Maybe Rays starter Taj Bradley didn’t get the scouting report from teammate Pete Fairbanks, because he also tried to beat Alonso upstairs with a 97-mph four-seamer and that pitch got obliterated, too. From a distance, which is the safest way to observe Alonso lately, the slugger appeared to be healthy. But in the postgame clubhouse, Alonso was anything but, so reporters and teammates alike formed a six-foot perimeter around his locker.
“I’m trying to get whatever he’s got,” said locker neighbor Jeff McNeil. “It’s working.”
Showalter joked about finding a way to keep Alonso sick — just not too sick, like maybe at the level he’s currently at. Alonso has now homered in three straight games for the second time this season, and leads the majors with 16, the most in Mets history through the team’s first 45 games.
“Pete’s a competitive, proven guy,” Showalter said. “People talk about leadership — leadership, more than anything, is setting an example. He likes answering the bell and the responsibilities that he has to be there for his team and organization.”
Let’s stick with that “proven guy” thing for a minute, because it seems to reflect how Showalter approached Thursday’s lineup — and specifically, who he left off that card. If not for Alonso’s heavy lifting, Brett Baty’s RBI groundout and Tommy Pham’s 55-mph, 90-foot infield single that drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth, this could have been a very different conversation, especially after who starred in Wednesday’s dramatic win.
It’s also a discussion that figures to be ongoing, for as long as Mark Vientos is on the major-league roster. Vientos, you may recall, was regularly crushing baseballs down at Triple-A Syracuse. And as soon as he was promoted Wednesday, Vientos promptly did the same in Queens, smacking a tying two-run shot off Rays righty reliever Ryan Thompson that helped trigger one of the more improbable comeback wins you’ll ever witness.
The victory was a great team-building moment for the previously downtrodden Mets, who talked a lot afterward about the kids’ contributions (Francisco Alvarez added his own tying three-run homer with two outs in the ninth). But, while Alvarez needed a blow Wednesday after catching 10 innings, Vientos seemed like a no-brainer at DH for the series finale, even with the Rays throwing the righthander Bradley.
Showalter thought otherwise, and went with his lefty DH Daniel Vogelbach, the manager’s default position. Vogelbach is complicit in the Mets’ paltry production at DH this season — a combined .346 slugging, .143 RISP, five HRs — but still got the nod Wednesday when the Mets really had nothing to lose by going with Vientos. How could he be any worse than what they’re already getting from the DH spot? When asked before Wednesday’s game, Showalter didn’t really provide a reason for sitting Vientos, other than citing “recency bias” and not being able to play two third basemen.
“Vogelbach is a pretty good option, too,” Showalter said.
That’s open to debate. Vogelbach could have backed his manager at the plate Thursday, but instead went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts (hey, at least he swung the bat a few times). By Vogelbach’s second K, which came with two runners on in the sixth, the boos were getting much louder — and if this continues with Vientos on the bench, they aren’t going away.
Fortunately for Showalter, the non-Vogelbach Mets made the DH thing a back-burner item on a day when the Mets took a series from baseball’s best team. And the manager can primarily thank Alonso for that.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
