Pete Alonso homered. Michael Conforto homered. Just like swell not so old times. Except they didn’t come close to tearing each other’s shirts off. Things change and move on. The Big Man can still bust the Citi and other ballparks in half, but he cycles through new handshake partners all the time. Does anybody in San Francisco refer to Conforto as Scooter?
Conforto and Alonso dingered to a draw Monday night on the Coast, each going deep once with the bases empty. Alas, Conforto’s Giants beat Alonso’s Mets, 5-2, on Monday night. It was 4-0 before each of our home run heartthrobs of 2019, when they combined for the two-man franchise record of 86 longballs, made the most of their whooping sticks. At 5-1 in the ninth, the Mets replicated a rally, willingly benefiting from walks and other Giant missteps and deriving a run for their troubles. It was midnight in Manhattan, no time to get cute. I was more asleep than not. Somebody get a hit or let me close my eyes altogether. A third out was made. I shrugged the Mets good night.
Most of what I remember one sunrise and then some later is Jose Quintana missing the strike zone and me missing not so much Michael Conforto but how excited he and Pete could get from one another’s accomplishments. The two of them homered in the same game for the first time on April 6, 2019. They did it again on April 7, then April 9, then April 21, realizing early in their shared tenure that they had quite a bit in common. They homered in what you’d call tandem in eight different games that year, the Polar Bear and the Silky Elk — some nicknames stick, some don’t — joining in a joyous rampage at the expense of opposing pitchers. When a game got won in particularly dramatic fashion, a shirt got pulled. Other Mets participated in the partial public disrobings, too, but it’s Conforto I most remember going bareback and Alonso I most remember removing fabric.
At some point Monday night, while my eyes remained as open as they could, I saw Conforto reach first base on a single. I hoped the telecast would stay on him long enough so we could see how he and Alonso interacted. But they cut away.
Yeah, it’s been a while.
I would have had Mr Conforto back. But, no one listened to me.
So much for bouncing back after a blowout, eh Ron Darling?