Francisco Alvarez sets Mets’ rookie catcher home run record with monstrous blast
The Mets outslugged the Diamondbacks on Tuesday afternoon, taking home an 8-5 win for their third straight victory. New York’s offense has been clicking on all cylinders of late, and they homered three more times in the ballgame.
Brandon Nimmo continued his recent power surge, but most notable was a monstrous blast off the bat of Francisco Alvarez, which put the Mets in front for good.
With the game tied at four in the top of the seventh, Alvarez stepped to the plate against Miguel Castro. The right-hander quickly got ahead of him 0-2, but Alvarez battled and stayed in the at-bat.
After fouling off three pitches, Alvarez crushed a sinker low in the zone 467 feet to dead center, giving the Mets a 6-4 lead. Its was the longest home run of Alvarez’s young career and the furthest by a Met this season.
The youngster broke down the at-bat to reporters postgame.
“Early in the count I was looking for a slider. Once I had two strikes on me I was just trying to barrel the ball up and then he threw another hanging slider that I missed. Then I was sitting fastball and I was able to react and hit it out,” he said.
“I knew immediately once I hit it that it was gone. Once you see the ball going that far your emotions start to heighten there because you know the significance of that moment, you took the lead at that point. It was a really exciting moment.”
Buck Showalter was impressed with the adjustments the rookie, who looked a little overmatched at first, was able to make mid at-bat.
“It’s a 21-year-old catcher making adjustments on the fly,” he said. “He’s seeing things and growing from them little by little. It’s two steps forward, one step back with guys at this level coming up.”
Alvarez now has 14 home runs on the year, which passed Travis d’Arnuad for the franchise record for home runs by a rookie catcher. It took the youngster to about the halfway point in the season to get there.
While he’s happy to have that mark, Alvarez knows there’s still work to be done.
“It feels good but I feel like there’s a lot more to do. We’re putting up good at-bats and we’re excited about it,” he said. “I don’t think I’m fully back to where I was that month when I was playing really well. But I think little by little I’ll be getting there.
“This team knows what we’re capable of doing, we can do that and more. It’s not really a surprising thing, we’re just looking to continue going out there and continue playing and hoping to do even better than what we’re doing.”
