The New York Mets entered Tuesday's action on a five-game winning streak, hoping to secure a third straight series win by defeating the Miami Marlins at a frigid Citi Field. For the first half of the game, it appeared as if the Mets were going to be in another close contest as it was deadlocked at two apiece. After all, eight of their first 10 games had been decided by two runs or fewer.
That changed in the fifth inning. Brett Baty and Hayden Senger led off with back-to-back singles, and Francisco Lindor moved Baty over to third base with a flyout. With runners on the corners and one out, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough wound up intentionally walking Juan Soto to load the bases.
In a vacuum, this decision made sense. Soto is one of, if not the best pure hitter in the game, and walking him would set up a potential double play. By making this decision, though, the Marlins proved they were willing to pitch to Pete Alonso, a red-hot hitter. Alonso, in prime 2025 fashion, cleared the bases on the second pitch he saw.
I don’t care if it’s Soto, walking anyone right now to load the bases for Pete Alonso is certainly a choice.
— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) April 8, 2025
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Pete Alonso reminds MLB that it isn't 2024 anymore by making Marlins pay for Juan Soto decision
If it was 2024, walking Soto to get to Alonso would've made perfect sense. Alonso, while productive, set career lows in a full 162-game season in home runs (34), RBI (88), and OPS (.788). Soto, on the other hand, hit a career-high 41 home runs and had a .989 OPS. Walking him to face a guy with an OPS 200 points lower would make sense in that scenario.
It isn't 2024 anymore, though. Alonso entered Tuesday's action slashing .314/.429/.657 with three home runs and 11 RBI. He had more walks (6) than strikeouts (5) on his ledger. Small sample, sure, but Alonso was seeing the ball as well as he has in quite some time. He had even hit an RBI double in his previous at-bat.
Again, I get that nobody really wants to face Soto, but should anyone want anything to do with Alonso now? While not Soto, when right, he is still one of the premier power hitters in the game.
Teams are going to have to pick their poison with the 2025 Mets, particularly at the top of the lineup. It'd be hard to blame anyone for not wanting to pitch to a 2024 NL MVP finalist in Lindor, but Soto is behind him. Nobody ever wants to deal with Soto, but Alonso is behind him. You can't walk everybody. If you don't want to deal with Soto, Alonso will make you pay with how he is swinging right now. That's exactly what happened on Tuesday, and there's no reason to believe that won't continue to happen.