Pete Alonso breaks Mets' home run record with No. 253, passing Darryl Strawberry

NEW YORK — There’s a new home run king in Queens: Pete Alonso.

Alonso hit the 253rd and 254th homers of his career on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves, moving past Darryl Strawberry to set the Mets‘ franchise record.

Alonso began the game tied with Strawberry with 252 home runs, then made history in the third inning by drilling a first-pitch fastball from Spencer Strider into Citi Field’s visitor bullpen.

An elated Alonso raised his right arm as he rounded first base, then flashed a big smile as he neared home plate.

Alonso embraced Brandon Nimmo, then Jeff McNeil, before lifting his helmet to the cheering crowd. Mets owner Steve Cohen was among those clapping in the stands.

“I just want to say congratulations on breaking the home run record,” Strawberry said in a video message to Alonso. “You have worked hard. You have stood up in the pressure of New York City, and you have played well. It is well-deserved.”

Alonso added another home run in the sixth inning, sending a first-pitch cutter from reliever Austin Cox over the center-field wall. He celebrated both blasts with curtain calls from the Mets’ dugout.

The historic blasts happened in Alonso’s 965th game and in his seventh MLB season. Strawberry hit his 252 home runs with the Mets in 1,109 games over eight seasons.

The record had belonged to Strawberry since May 3, 1988, when he hit his 155th homer to pass Dave Kingman’s prior franchise best.

“It’s special,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said before Tuesday’s game, hours before Alonso set the record. “Talking about a number, talking about history. So many great players have put on this uniform, and here we are, one away from witnessing something special, and for him to be able to do it here.”

Alonso tied Strawberry’s record on Saturday night in Milwaukee with a second-inning homer against the Brewers’ Tobias Meyers.

The Brewers were already familiar with Alonso’s torment. American Family Field was where he hit the go-ahead homer in Game 3 of last year’s NL wild-card series, clinching the first round for the Mets and sending them to the NLDS for the first time since 2015.

But Alonso did not homer in Sunday’s series finale, setting the stage for him to make history Tuesday in the first game of the Mets’ six-game homestand.

Strawberry and Alonso could easily be considered two of the most beloved Mets in history, though their career paths couldn’t be more different.

“He was a complicated kid who, thank God, got it straightened out, but with Pete, there was none of that,” said Mets radio play-by-play voice Howie Rose. “I think in a sense, because Darryl became such a controversial figure, and there was so much extraneous activity surrounding him, he became a lot less totally embraced by the fan base than Pete has been. I mean, these fans love Pete unconditionally.”

Strawberry, an outfielder who grew up playing on the hardscrabble streets of South Central Los Angeles, was part of the hard-partying, hard-charging 1986 Mets team that brought the second-ever World Series championship to Queens. Substance abuse issues, legal issues, controversies and confrontations. Contentious negotiations with the Mets ended in 1990 when he signed with his hometown Dodgers.

“Darryl will tell you to this day that he never should have left New York,” Rose said. “There was a deal to be worked out, even though Frank Cashen made it difficult. But Darryl had his issues then, as we all know, so a lot of his aggregate performance, over eight years, in retrospect, is framed against a lot of strife and a lot of unfortunate, not only incidents, but circumstances surrounding him off the field.”

Alonso, like Strawberry, was drafted by the Mets. A second-round pick out of the University of Florida in 2016, he endeared himself to Mets fans as a rookie three years later. It wasn’t just his MLB-record 53 home runs, it was the passion and enthusiasm he played the game with. The 30-year-old Tampa native affectionately referred to as the “Polar Bear” embraced the Queens community from the start.

A power-hitting first baseman on the field, in his postgame interviews, he came off as an everyman. Between the shirtless Gatorade baths, the “LGFM” proclamations and the charity work done by he and his wife Haley throughout the years, Mets fans considered him one of their own.

“For Pete, there is just this unconditional love on the part of the fan base,” Rose said. “I think a lot of that is returned in kind.”

The love remained even as Alonso tested free agency for the first time last winter. Ultimately, he returned to the Mets on a one-year contract with a player option for 2026. His home run in Milwaukee likely kept him in a Mets uniform this season, with the fans begging the club to sign their homegrown hero.

“I genuinely believe that he wants to stay here and finish his career,” Rose said. “I know he does.”

Strawberry was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2010, and his No. 18 was retired last season. Fans have since embraced Strawberry, and the 67-year-old has embraced Alonso.

“Records are made to be broken,” he recently told reporters in New Jersey.

By many measures, Alonso was already the greatest home run hitter in Mets history.

The 53 home runs he hit in 2019 remain the Mets’ single-season record, and he is the only player in franchise history with multiple seasons of at least 40 home runs, a feat he’s achieved three times.

Alonso steadily climbed up the Mets’ home run leaderboard, passing Mike Piazza (220) for third place last August and David Wright (242) for second place in June.

“The record is obviously something that is really special, and it’s meaningful, but right now in the heat of it, I’m not too focused on that,” Alonso said this month after hitting No. 250.

“I’m just focused on wins and what I can help this team do to win in each game,” he said. “We’re in the thick of a playoff race right now. I’ll think of all the other stuff in the offseason or whenever I have time to.”