ST. LOUIS — Those taking a tour to the top of the Arch on Sunday afternoon may have had the best view of the product of a college beef between Pete Alonso and Dakota Hudson.
After Alonso insisted he be in the Mets lineup to face Hudson, the rookie first baseman crushed the second pitch he saw for a monster home run. He walked on five pitches in his second at-bat in the third inning.
Alonso’s eighth homer of the year traveled a projected 444 feet — and that may have been selling it short — as it landed above the berm, just in front of the batter’s eye in dead center field. Cardinals center fielder Dexter Fowler hardly moved, taking only a few steps toward the wall and then deciding to save his energy.
The moonshot came less than 24 hours after Alonso had gotten hit on the right hand while fouling off a pitch and underwent X-rays, which came back negative. Still, he had Mickey Callaway worried Saturday night.
Alonso was texting and calling his manager as Callaway was trying to head out to dinner with his parents.
“It scared me,” Callaway said Sunday morning. “I was like, ‘What happened?’ ”
All was well with his hand, but Alonso wanted to make sure he would be in the lineup against Hudson. They were former college
rivals — Alonso at Florida and Hudson at Mississippi State — in the powerhouse SEC from 2014-16.
“He called me [Saturday] night and was like, ‘Hey, you better put me in,’” Callaway said. “He was like, ‘Hey, I want to play tomorrow. I hate this guy. I played against him in college.’ I don’t know.
“I don’t know what he was saying. He was going nuts.”
Alonso was 0-for-4 against Hudson in college, but the Gators were 5-2 against the Bulldogs in games Alonso played. The Mets rookie played coy about their history before the game.