ARLINGTON -- Outspoken leadership is unmistakably one of the key assets Pete Alonso brought to the Orioles when he signed a five-year, $155 million deal last December.
But he didn’t need to say anything on Sunday. The crack of his bat was all the Orioles needed to hear.
With his first multihomer game since joining the Orioles, Alonso helped them snap a three-game losing streak in a 10-5 win over the Rangers, salvaging the final game of the series at Globe Life Field. Alonso blasted a pair of two-run homers in the second and fourth innings.
Alonso went 3-for-3 with two walks, three runs scored and four RBIs on Sunday.
Alonso has 27 career multihomer games, tied for the third-most among active players behind Aaron Judge (40) and Kyle Schwarber (35). He reached the 25-homer mark for the seventh time in his eight-year career; he hit 16 homers in only 57 games in the Covid-shortened 2020 campaign.
Even before his round-trippers Sunday, Alonso set the tone. After he singled in the first inning, Alonso hustled from first to third to enable Jackson Holliday to stretch a gapper into a double. Both Alonso and Holliday, later, scored.
Colton Cowser pushed Baltimore to a 3-0 lead with a leadoff homer in the second. Three batters later, Alonso jumped on a Kumar Rocker slider for a Statcast-projected 393-foot homer. The ball clanked halfway up the left-field foul pole.
Even that pick-me-up might not have been enough for the Orioles, though, as spot starter Cade Povich faltered in a three-run third inning. Povich, who is likely headed to the Minor Leagues upon Chris Bassitt’s apparently imminent return to the rotation from the IL, did not return for the fourth.
With Povich struggling with command issues Sunday, Alonso again took the lead and all but put the game away in the fourth against Rangers reliever Jordan Montgomery. Alonso’s 404-foot, full-count shot to left-center field landed in the Orioles’ bullpen, not far from warming reliever Yaramil Hiraldo, who earned the victory with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts.