AL RBI leader Alonso now 1st in HRs after blasting 2, including 471-footer

NEW YORK -- Only two players in Orioles history (since 1954) have led the American League in both home runs and RBIs in a season: Frank Robinson, when he won the Triple Crown in ‘66 (49 homers and 122 RBIs), and Chris Davis, when he set the franchise home run record in 2013 (53 homers and 138 RBIs).

Pete Alonso is making a legitimate push to become the third.

The Polar Bear continued his unreal finish to his first year in Baltimore by clubbing another pair of home runs in a 10-2 win over the Yankees in Game 1 of Friday’s doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. That boosted Alonso’s season homer total to an AL-high 43, to go along with his AL-leading 113 RBIs.

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Since Sept. 15, Alonso has slugged eight homers in his past nine games, which also included a two-homer showing in Monday’s win over Toronto. The 31-year-old’s second long ball in Friday’s opener (a seventh-inning solo shot) traveled a Statcast-projected 471 feet -- his longest of the season and tied for the second longest of his eight-year MLB career. (He swatted a Statcast-projected 489-foot blast at Minnesota as a rookie with the Mets on July 17, 2019.)

“It’s impressive,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “It’s not only the at-bat quality and the pitches he’s getting, he’s not missing them. He’s squaring them up pretty good.”

The Orioles (79-81) have been eliminated from postseason contention. But Alonso is giving Baltimore fans something fun to watch during the homestretch of the 2026 season. And his O’s teammates are enjoying it, too.

“It’s probably the best second-half performance I’ve ever seen from a hitter,” said left-hander Trevor Rogers, who tossed four innings of one-run ball in his final start of the season. “He could very well be a Hall of Famer when it’s all said and done. The fact that I played with him and saw how he went about his business every day, it’s special.”

Alonso’s career homer total is up to 307, and this marks the fourth time he has hit 40 or more in a season. His only two years with more home runs were his 2019 rookie campaign (53) and ‘23 (46).

Here are some more impressive stats about Alonso:

• He is the eighth player to hit 43 or more home runs in a season for the Orioles, and it’s the ninth such occurrence. (Davis did it twice.)

• Alonso could become the first player in AL/NL history to post seasons as the RBI leader in each league. He drove in a National League-high 131 runs in 2022.

• Alonso could become the sixth player to lead both the AL and NL in home runs in a season, per the Elias Sports Bureau. The previous five were Shohei Ohtani, Mark McGwire, Fred McGriff, Sam Crawford and Buck Freeman.

• The only two MLB players to hit more home runs over his first eight big league seasons were Ralph Kiner (329) and Albert Pujols (319).

• Alonso has belted 16 home runs in 43 career games against the Yankees. That’s the most by any player in his first 43 games against New York.

The reason for Alonso hitting so many homers might be that he doesn’t chase them.

“For me, I’ve always been, my whole career, anti-launch angle,” Alonso said. “If you hit the ball hard on a consistent basis, between the lines, good things are going to happen over the course of the time. That’s where I’m at -- don’t just chase barrels, chase sweet spots. That’s a big, big difference. The sweet spot, that’s the bullseye. And you want to hit the ball on the bullseye every single time. ...

“Yeah, I hit homers. But I’ve never thought, ‘Hey, I need to hit the ball in the air, try and get the ball in the air.’”