The New York Mets spent most of the winter preparing for life without Pete Alonso.
Now, they’ve spent the first 13 games of the season wondering where they’d be without him.
The slugger will look to continue his torrid start to the season on Saturday afternoon when the Mets visit the Athletics in the middle game of a three-game interleague series in West Sacramento, Calif.
Left-hander David Peterson (1-0, 2.53 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against right-hander J.T. Ginn, who will be recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas to make his season debut for the Athletics.
Alonso homered and collected three RBIs Friday night, when the Mets held off a pair of comeback attempts by the Athletics in a 7-6 win.
Alonso finished a triple shy of the cycle by going 3-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and a hit by pitch. The 30-year-old, who hit free agency last fall but remained unsigned until he agreed on Feb. 12 to a two-year deal with an opt-out following this season, is hitting a robust .378 with four homers and 18 RBIs. He leads the majors with a .778 slugging percentage and a 1.260 OPS.
The rest of the Mets are hitting a combined .196 with seven homers and 33 RBIs.
Alonso needed 36 games last season to reach 18 RBIs, when he hit .240 and set full-season career lows with 34 homers, 88 RBIs and a .788 OPS.
“Honestly, just feeling like myself pitch-to-pitch, at-bat to at-bat,” Alonso said. “I just want to make quality swing decisions and just put the ball in play hard when pitchers come over the plate.”
Ginn, who earned the promotion by going 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in his first two starts for Las Vegas, will get a chance to face his former organization Saturday. The right-hander was selected by the Mets in the second round of the 2020 draft and dealt to the Athletics for pitcher Chris Bassitt on March 12, 2022.
Ginn earned the promotion by going 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in his first two starts for Las Vegas. He last pitched on April 3, when he gave up two runs and struck out 11 over six innings in a 4-2 extra-inning loss to the Sacramento River Cats.
Ginn was 1-1 with a 4.24 ERA in eight games (six starts) for the Athletics last season. He earned the win in the club’s Oakland finale on Sept. 26 after giving up two runs over 5 1/3 innings in a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.
“Seeing the last game at the Coliseum and him pitching really opened my eyes,” Athletics pitching coach Scott Emerson told MLB.com in spring training. “That was a big game for a lot of people.”
Peterson didn’t factor into the decision in his most recent start for the Mets last Sunday, when he gave up one run over 4 2/3 innings in the team’s 2-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. He won his lone previous start and appearance against the Athletics last Aug. 14, when the southpaw tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings as the Mets earned a 9-1 victory in New York.
Ginn has never opposed the Mets.
