Ponies' Alonso rips first two Double-A homers

Peter Alonso has only been at Double-A for a week, but he's already making his presence felt.
The Mets' 10th-ranked prospect blasted his first two Eastern League homers on Wednesday, extending his hitting streak to seven games and powering Double-A Binghamton to a 5-1 victory over Erie at NYSEG Stadium.

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"It's been a nice adjustment so far and I'm happy to be up here," Alonso said. "It's exciting to go on a playoff run and try to win a championship."
Binghamton already had scored twice in the opening inning on Kevin Kaczmarski's homer to right off Tigers No. 16 prospectSandy Baez -- who was making his Double-A debut -- when Alonso strolled to the plate as the Rumble Ponies' No. 3 hitter. He ran the count to 2-1 before taking the next pitch and driving a tape-measure shot out of the park and into the railyard beyond the left field wall.

"First, it was a fastball strike, then two sliders for balls and I was like, 'All right, he's got to come to me,'" Alonso said. "He threw a fastball and I got good wood on it. He's a hard thrower, so I let my hands go and it went over."
Alonso struck out in his next at-bat against Baez (0-1) before leading off the bottom of the sixth against right-hander A.J. Ladwig. The 22-year-old repeated his first-inning feat, this time crushing a long homer to left-center.
"I just wanted to see what he was throwing, looking for something out over the plate," Alonso said. "Then he got me with a few strikes soft and away, and typically the pattern for me is soft away, hard in. He threw me a sinker in, I got my barrel to it and it went over the fence. It was a good result, stuck with my plan of not trying to do too much."

The 2016 second-round pick owns a healthy .333/.353/.667 batting line through 34 plate appearances with the Rumble Ponies, but he was happy to get his first Double-A homers out of the way after blasting 16 in 82 games with Class A Advanced St. Lucie. He even got some fortuitous advice from a teammate.
"[Binghamton pitcher] Corey Oswalt was with me the other day. He was saying that once you get that first home run out of the way, the second comes easy," Alonso said. "I think he has two home runs himself, so he's giving me a hard time in the locker room; he's a funny guy. And then I hit two today and it was funny back in the locker room: 'Yeah, Oz you were right -- after the first one, the second one does come easy.'"
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Despite his success during his first stint in the pitcher-friendly Florida State League -- his 16 homers are still tied for the lead, while his .878 OPS would rank second if he had enough plate appearances to qualify -- Alonso said he wasn't expecting to see Binghamton until next year. He got the good news during a rain delay in Port Charlotte on Aug. 23 in a game that eventually was postponed.

"Manager Chad Kreuter called a team meeting after he had just gotten done talking with the GM," Alonso said. "He gave us two announcements: the first was a doubleheader [the next day] and the second was that Alonso's going to Double-A. After that, people were extremely happy, congratulating me and stuff like that. It was a really good feeling. I was honestly shocked."
Binghamton starter Mickey Jannis (8-7) continued a strong recent stretch by allowing one run on seven hits while striking out three over 7 2/3 innings. He's given up four earned runs over his last 29 innings.
Mets No. 13 prospect Luis Guillorme was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI out of the leadoff spot and drew the Rumble Ponies' lone walk of the night.