{"id":584257,"date":"2026-02-21T05:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584257\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:20:19","slug":"orioles-pete-alonso-gives-yankees-early-reminder-of-what-damage-he-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584257\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles’ Pete Alonso gives Yankees early reminder of what ‘damage’ he can do"},"content":{"rendered":"

SARASOTA, Fla. \u2014 In case there was any doubt left that Pete Alonso has moved on from the Mets<\/a> and embraced his new home, he was in the middle of an interview \u2014 after staying in his spring debut with the Orioles an extra inning so he could crush a home run \u2014 when he stopped in his tracks.<\/p>\n

John Denver\u2019s \u201cThank God I\u2019m a Country Boy,\u201d the song played during the seventh-inning stretch of every game at Camden Yards, came on the speakers at Ed Smith Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love this song,\u201d a grinning Alonso said. \u201cThis is going to be really fun this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, the slugging first baseman is not in Queens anymore.<\/p>\n

\"PetePete Alonso rounds the bases after homering for the Orioles on Feb. 21, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Alonso is still wearing orange (a slightly different shade) and beating up on the Yankees (albeit this time in a game that did not count), but he looked right at home in an Orioles uniform as he delighted his new fans by doing what he does best: crushing baseballs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel honored to wear it,\u201d Alonso said during the Orioles\u2019 2-0 win over the Yankees. \u201cI feel great in it. I feel like I look good in it. It\u2019s fantastic, I honestly couldn\u2019t feel any better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alonso, who signed a five-year, $155 million contract with the Orioles<\/a> in December to end his long tenure with the Mets, received an ovation from the crowd of 7,886 before each at-bat.<\/p>\n

Most of the Orioles regulars exited the Grapefruit League opener after the fifth inning, but Alonso wanted to stay in one more frame so he could take another at-bat. He had been robbed of extra bases in his second at-bat, on a diving grab by center fielder Kenedy Corona, but made the third one worth it. <\/p>\n

He saw a curveball over the plate from non-roster right-hander Bradley Hanner and clobbered it 107.2 mph over the left-field fence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BaltimoreBaltimore Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso flying out to centerfield during the third inning on Feb. 21, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

It offered a reminder of the challenge the Yankees will be facing twice as often this season than when Alonso was with the Mets, though he still did plenty of damage then \u2014 clubbing 11 home runs in 32 career games in the Subway Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like he\u2019s done some damage against us \u2014 he\u2019s hurt us,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said before the game. \u201cHe\u2019s gotten some big hits against us, some big homers against us. So hopefully we can do a better job of slowing him down a little bit. But he\u2019s a huge presence in a lineup, and a guy that\u2019s been incredibly durable, too. He\u2019s a guy that goes to the post all the time. To have that 40-homer guy in the middle, night in and night out, lengthens their lineup. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s a lineup over there that has a chance to be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Orioles-Yankees rivalry is a little different than Mets-Yankees, but Alonso said he was looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun because Yankee Stadium, it\u2019s a really great place to play, fun place to hit,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously they have really good teams. When you play against good teams, it makes for good competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m looking forward to this next chapter. It\u2019s going to be really exciting going to war with this team that we got here. I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. \u2014 In case there was any doubt left that Pete Alonso has moved on from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[47,5,4,1690,61,62,2548,2547,74,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-584257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baltimore-orioles","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-new-york-yankees","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkyankees","16":"tag-pete-alonso","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116106942353917949","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}