Pete Alonso urged Mets fans to keep believing when he spoke to reporters after the team's loss on Sunday, their fourth in a row, and he doubled down on that optimism on Tuesday.
Once again, he urged the New York faithful to stick along for the ride, because it is nowhere near finished, even as the Mets' playoff odds have plummeted in their recent slide.
"Why stop? We're still in this thing," Alonso told WFAN's Danielle McCartan at his Youth Baseball ProCamp at the Passaic County Technical Institute. "We're only 2.5 games out of first. Just because it was a rough patch doesn't mean it's gonna be the whole rest of the way. You have our entire team dedicating their entire lives to this. It's really special the group we have. There's really nothing to worry about. We got this. It's a special group, and I know we're gonna make it happen. You gotta believe."
New York had a chance to make a statement this past weekend, but instead were swept by the surging Phillies to fall out of first place for the first time in three months. Their odds to make the postseason have dropped 20 percent in the last week, all the way down to five percent, per Baseball Reference, but Alonso doesn't care about the numbers, only his team, which he still feels is capable of leading the Mets to their first division title since 2015.
"As long as we stay together, this team has been extremely resilient from day one," Alonso said. "We have so many high-character players and staff and people with us working for the team. We all believe in each other. The swag, the belief and the magic is there. It just needs to happen.
"There's times for teams to go through rough patches, and this was our time to go through it. We had an off day yesterday, we've had a really long stretch of games. I think we had maybe 21 or 20 games in the same amount of days. It's a lot. But this off day has been really awesome for us. I think it's gonna be a total reset button for us."
New York picked a poor time to go through its rough patch, and with Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor's return nowhere in sight, the Mets need to find their spark from within, though Alonso insists the fire is still burning, and the swagger is still there.
"To be honest, it's never left," Alonso said. "It's about the journey. There's no perfect way to get to where we want to go. There's no perfect way to win a championship."
If the Mets want to clear a path towards a championship, they'll have to secure a playoff spot first. Getting back atop the NL East isn't going to be any easier, as they will face the Dodgers and Giants, two of the best teams in baseball, 13 times in a row following this week's series against the Nationals. So the coming weeks could bury New York if the team doesn't break out of its funk in a hurry.
"We have a really good challenge ahead of us," Alonso said. "We have an in-division team, the Nationals, then we go to the Dodgers over the weekend and head out to the west coast. This is an intense part of our schedule, but every single one of us is ready for the challenge."
Alonso's ProCamp was his inaugural event, where participants learned fundamental baseball skills and had the opportunity to meet and interact with the star first baseman. Each camper received a limited-edition camp t-shirt, a souvenir autograph, and a team photo with Alonso at the one-day event.
"I just hope every single one of these kids leaves today just loving the game of baseball more," Alonso said. "The biggest thing I want to help teach these kids is that your dreams can come true as long as you're willing to work hard and pour everything you have into it.
"If baseball isn't the path, then there's a lot of life lessons that baseball can teach from a young age. I just want to help these young kids not just in the game of baseball, but hopefully teach some life lessons as well."
Follow Danielle McCartan on Twitter: @CoachMcCartan
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