Orioles 7, Mets 1: Alonso Goes Deep Again, and Baltimore Sweeps Queens

A 410-foot reunion, then three more homers

September 16, 2026 - New York - Pete Alonso hit the first pitch that mattered into the second deck in left. Statcast projected 410 feet, the MLB recap said. Citi Field chanted his name again. The Baltimore Orioles were 1-0 in the first inning of a 7-1 win over the New York Mets, and they were not done.

Cloudy. 73 degrees. Wind 8 mph out to left. First pitch 7:11 p.m. Attendance 25,324. The game lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes. Baltimore had nine hits, four of them homers. New York had seven. The Orioles are 75-78. The Mets are 69-83. Baltimore swept the three-game series.

Monday was the emotional return. Tuesday was Alonso's 300th career homer and an 11-inning 7-5. Wednesday was 301, a first-inning solo, and a night the rest of the order refused to leave to him.

Jackson, then Encarnacion-Strand, then Basallo on the next pitch

Xzavion Curry started for New York. He lasted three innings: six hits, six runs, four homers, one walk, three strikeouts, 61 pitches. He is 0-1. Every Baltimore homer came off him.

Jeremiah Jackson hit a two-run shot to center in the second, Christian Encarnacion-Strand scoring. 3-0. Jackson is starting in place of Jackson Holliday, who went on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation before Wednesday's game, the MLB recap said. Jackson had not homered for Baltimore since June 14 until he went deep on Tuesday. He went deep again on Wednesday. His ninth.

The third was the inning that ended the argument. Coby Mayo was on when Encarnacion-Strand hit a two-run homer to left-center, his 10th. 5-0. Samuel Basallo homered to center on the next pitch, his 18th. 6-0. Alonso, Jackson, and Encarnacion-Strand each homered in both of the last two games in New York. The MLB recap, citing Elias, said it is the first time the same three Orioles have gone deep in consecutive games since Chris Davis, Manny Machado, and Mark Trumbo on August 18 and 19, 2016.

Encarnacion-Strand finished 3-for-4 with two doubles, a homer, three runs, and two RBI. Basallo went 2-for-4 with a homer, a ninth-inning RBI single, and two RBI. Alonso's night was the first-inning solo. That was enough. Colton Cowser singled, walked, and stole a base.

Bassitt's 6 2/3, and a Mets lineup that scored once

Chris Bassitt threw 6 2/3 innings. Five hits. One run. One walk. Six strikeouts. Ninety-five pitches. He is 8-5. The MLB recap called it one of his best outings of the season and a season-high-tying 6 2/3. He was Alonso's teammate in Queens in 2022. He is Alonso's teammate in Baltimore now. He watched the first-inning homer from the dugout and then made sure it stood up.

"That was extraterrestrial, for sure," Bassitt said of the reception, per the MLB recap. "Crazy. I mean, that was honestly one of the cooler experiences."

New York's only run came in the fourth. Jared Young scored on Marcus Semien's single to left. 6-1. That was the Mets' night. A.J. Ewing had two hits and a stolen base. The rest of the order made outs behind Bassitt's cutter. Anthony Nunez got the last out of the seventh. Josh Walker threw a scoreless eighth. Yennier Cano finished the ninth.

Jefry Yan threw three hitless innings after Curry. Jack Weisenburger allowed Basallo's ninth-inning single and struck out five over three. Neither inherited a lead. The Mets used three pitchers and still gave up four homers before they scored.

Alonso, asked about the reunion, pointed at September. "I know that there were people excited for me to come back, but at the end of the day, there's a job to do," he said, per the MLB recap. "We're playing some really important baseball right now... It's crunch time for us, and chasing down a playoff spot is the most important thing."

A sweep, and 2 1/2 games that are still a real number

Baltimore is 2 1/2 games behind the White Sox (77-75) for the last American League Wild Card, the MLB recap said. The Orioles also have to pass the Rangers (76-76) and Blue Jays (76-77). They have nine games left: a homestand against Milwaukee and Toronto, then three at Yankee Stadium. Manager Craig Albernaz called it interesting. He also called it a hole they put themselves in.

A 7-1 sweep in Queens does not close 2 1/2 games by itself. It does send a club that just took three from a former home into that homestand with four homers still ringing around Citi Field. Alonso did the reunion. Encarnacion-Strand and Basallo did the third. Bassitt did the rest.

The Mets are 69-83. They hosted Alonso for three nights, cheered him, and watched him leave with a series they did not win. Wednesday was the cleanest of the three losses. It was also the one that never felt close after the third inning.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Bassitt at 20.66 pitching fantasy points and Encarnacion-Strand at 12 hitting FP. Basallo had 7. Alonso had 5. Baltimore finished with 16 team FP, second on a 15-game Wednesday. New York finished last on the team board at minus-6.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*