Pete Alonso wishes he could face the Los Angeles Angels regularly, as he’d love to play against Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani more often. He may get the chance to face Ohtani, at least, in the semifinals of the 2021 MLB Home Run Derby on Monday night, and he had high praise for the MLB Home Run leader earlier in the day.
"He’s an incredible talent. He’s got an electric arm with unbelievable hit tool and power," Alonso said. “He’s got good enough stats for two different players to be an All-Star but he owns both. An unreal ERA, a lot of homers, great average. It’s special and you don’t see that now.”
If Alonso beats Salvador Perez in Round 1, and Ohtani defeats Juan Soto, we’ll have a matchup between defending champ and HR leader – but no matter who is in his way, the Polar Bear “is on a mission tonight” to retain his crown.
"No one in the derby should be taken lightly. There’s a lot of guys in the field that just have incredible amounts of power and are great hitters,” Alonso said. “But no matter who I’m going up against, I have one job and that’s to hit one more homer than whoever I’m facing.”
He’ll be taking pitches from Mets bench coach Dave Jauss, and the conditions at Coors Field lend themselves to seeing some absolute bombs – but Alonso’s strategy is the same as it was in Cleveland when he won the Derby two years ago.
“I had a really great strategy for the derby in ’19," he said. "I feel like if I were to implement that strategy and continue to do those things well – stay hydrated, stay rested, take as minimal amount of swings as possible to conserve energy – that’s going to be huge.”
But could the Polar Bear take one out of Coors and into the mountains?
"Anything's possible," he said with a smile.
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