This story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE -- On the day of Pete Alonso's introductory press conference with the Orioles last Dec. 12, the slugging first baseman took a tour of Camden Yards. That included a walk up Eutaw Street -- the unique area that runs parallel to the warehouse that is one of the ballpark’s defining features.
Since Camden Yards opened on April 6, 1992, there have been 136 home runs to land on Eutaw Street during a game. And all 136 have been clubbed by left-handed hitters.
During Alonso’s tour, he was told by a team employee that a home run has to clear both the right-field flag court and the fences behind it to qualify as a Eutaw Street homer. The Polar Bear was also told how no right-handed hitter has done it.
“Well, we’ve got to change that,” Alonso said at the time.
A little more than two months into his first season in Baltimore, Alonso thinks it’s possible.
“You’ve really got to touch it,” the 31-year-old Alonso said on Sunday morning. “But with the right conditions, I feel like it could get out.”
It would also take a tremendous amount of opposite-field power. But as Alonso has shown this year, he has plenty of that.
Of Alonso’s 11 home runs this season, seven have been hit the opposite way to either right or right-center. That percentage (63.6%) would be his career high, but that’s not to say he hasn’t had the ability to homer to all fields throughout his eight-year MLB tenure.
“I’ve always had the ability to hit the ball hard,” Alonso said. “I know how in this game, a lot of people, you’ve got to pull the ball in the air. For me, I don’t have to, luckily, because I’ve always had that ability to stay within a ball and hit it hard to all parts of the field.”
Forty of Alonso’s 275 career home runs have been hit the opposite way. But as the yearly breakdown shows, he’s gotten even better at going to right/right-center in recent seasons:
2019: 6 of 53 (11.3%)
2020: 1 of 16 (6.3%)
2021: 2 of 37 (5.4%)
2022: 3 of 40 (7.5%)
2023: 7 of 46 (15.2%)
2024: 4 of 34 (11.8%)
2025: 10 of 38 (26.3%)
2026: 7 of 11 (63.6%)
Has the increase in opposite-field home runs been by design? Is it a matter of the types/locations of pitches being thrown to the Polar Bear?
According to Alonso, it’s simple. It’s a combination of his willingness to hit the ball anywhere -- as long as he hits the ball hard -- and maintaining his desired approach at the plate. As long as he does those things, good results will come, and potentially to any field.
“I don’t care where it goes. For me, I’m always open to going to the big part of the field because it gives me a lot of plate coverage and zone coverage,” Alonso said. “I always emphasize having the ability to do that, not getting too big, regardless if things are going well or not going well. For me, I think being able to do that, it’s always something I’m able to do.
“It’s just more when I’m locked in, it’s more like, ‘Hey, am I taking walks? Am I ending at-bats when they should end? Regardless of the pitch type, a ball comes over the middle of the dish, am I putting a good swing on it and hitting it hard?’”
Alonso can produce positive results going the other way even when the ball doesn’t clear the fence. In Saturday’s 6-5 win over the Blue Jays, his walk-off RBI single in the ninth was punched 104.4 mph into right-center. He also had an 87.5 mph bloop RBI single in the third inning of Sunday’s 9-5 victory vs. Toronto.
“To me, that’s Pete’s calling card, his ability to drive the ball the other way with runners in scoring position,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “He has pop to all fields, and that right there, being able to take that pitch and drive it to right field to end [Saturday’s] game, to me, that’s where Pete’s at his best.”
The closest Alonso has come to hitting a home run onto Eutaw Street came on May 22, when he swatted a Statcast-projected 391-foot blast to deep on the right-field flag court. Although it landed near the flag poles, he would have needed a bit more oomph to get it to Eutaw.
But perhaps if there’s a night with the wind blowing in the right direction -- and if Alonso can slice it to right and closer to the right-field foul pole, where the distance to Eutaw Street would be a bit less -- then maybe the Polar Bear would do it one day.
Alonso certainly has the type of power profile that gives him better odds than most righties.