Pete Alonso went deep again for the Mets in Wednesday's series finale against the Padres, and now leads the majors with six homers to begin the season.
Sal Licata believes that Alonso's power surge is at least partially driven by a desire to dethrone his crosstown rival, who just blasted 62 home runs last season.
"Pete Alonso, he has to be motivated by what Aaron Judge did a year ago," Sal said. "Alonso prides himself on not just his power, but his game overall, but specifically has talked about being the game's best power hitter.
"If you are like that, thinking you're the best power hitter in baseball, and you see a guy in the same town go out there and break a record last year and get the contract he got, there is no doubt in my mind that Pete Alonso is on a mission to surpass Aaron Judge's home run total from last year."
That would of course take an MVP-caliber season for Alonso to pull that off, but he did surpass Judge's rookie home run record in 2019 (although the juiced baseballs could have played a part in a couple of those dingers), and Alonso is one of the best home run hitters in the game, hitting 130 homers in his last three full seasons (excluding the shortened 2020 campaign). After hitting 40 home runs last season, Sal believes Alonso has that motivation to one-up Judge's unforgettable 2022 joyride.
"There's that little competitive nature between the two," Sal said. "I'm not saying they don't like each other…but there's definitely something to it. 'Oh yeah, if he can do it, I can't do it.' Pete has that edge about him, and I love it."
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