Pete Alonso hit a 446-foot home run, while Harrison Bader smashed a two-run homer, helping the New York Mets secure a 6-3 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
David Peterson pitched efficiently, making it into the seventh inning in his second start of the season for the Mets. They have won four out of six games since their rough patch of 7 wins out of 19 games.
Alonso’s home run came in the ninth inning against Nationals’ closer Kyle Finnegan, who entered the game with Washington trailing 5-2. Alonso has hit 26 homers in 81 career games against the Nationals, with 14 of those at Nationals Park—more than any other opposing player in the past five years.
“Feels great, but the thing about baseball is you got to come ready to go and ready to go tomorrow,” Alonso said.
“Today was a really good day personally, really happy I was able to cap off my day with that last swing there but Bader did a great job getting the boys started with that two-run homer. It was just a really great day offensively.”
Left-hander DJ Herz made his major league debut for Washington, stepping in for the injured Trevor Williams. He was charged with four runs on seven hits in four-plus innings.
“It was amazing,” Herz said. “The adrenaline was pumping, and everybody was very welcoming. It was an awesome first day. Man, I’m tired right now. But it was a great day.”
Bader put the Mets on the scoreboard in the fourth inning with his third homer of the season, hitting a 1-2 cutter from Herz 390 feet to left-center.
“He was a little nervous,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez said. “He was sweating like crazy out there. But you know what, in big moments he kind of settled down and threw strikes and looked really good.”
Herz was taken out of the game after allowing consecutive hits to Alonso and Brandon Nimmo to start the fifth inning. Those hits led to runs scored on a triple by Starling Marte against reliever Derek Law.
