Alonso plates career-high five in St. Lucie rout

Coming out of the Florida State League All-Star break, Peter Alonso was batting .167/.217/.269. After Friday's monster night, that line is looking much healthier.
The Mets' ninth-ranked prospect established career highs with four extra-base hits and five RBIs in Class A Advanced St. Lucie's 19-7 thumping of Charlotte at First Data Field. He reached base five times and homered for the third time in five games, bringing his RBI total to 12 since the recess.

Gameday box score
"I'm feeling outstanding and I'm super, super, super happy with the progress I've made so far this year and correcting a few things," Alonso said. "Now I'm just seeing the fruits of my labor and sticking with my routine, and everything's coming together."
The 22-year-old first baseman played six games before breaking his hand on April 11 when Pirates No. 27 prospectDario Agrazal hit him with a pitch in his first at-bat. Alonso spent six weeks on the disabled list before returning on May 26, then went 1-for-19 in his first five games back.
"It was a long process of getting my timing down and finding my swing," he said. "I didn't think it would [end], but I'm out of it now and I'm thankful. It wasn't necessarily a huge adjustment, just getting my feet wet back playing baseball again was the tough part."
The Stone Crabs jumped out to a 5-0 lead after an inning and a half, and Alonso popped to first in the second before smacking his first hit -- an RBI double to left -- to cap a four-run third that sliced the deficit to a run. Coming up again in the fourth, the Tampa native found himself in a 2-0 count with the bases loaded before smacking a grand slam to left-center off right-hander Taylor Hawkins.
"They had a knuckleballer on the mound and I was just looking for something up," Alonso said. "I got something up and I drove it. I just saw the pitch I wanted and put a good swing on it."
Alonso walked in the fifth before hitting his second double of the game to left in the sixth, the fifth consecutive inning he came to the plate after the Mets combined for 18 runs in the third, fourth and fifth to build a 12-run cushion. For the University of Florida product, it was reminiscent of his college days when the Gators put up an 11-run inning on June 13, 2015 against Miami, tying the College World Series record for runs in an inning.
"It was fun hitting a lot," Alonso said. "I do recall my sophomore year against Miami in the College World Series, I think we hit for like an hour straight in that one. I think I had five or six at-bats that game, but we hit for a straight hour -- that's the only time that came close to tonight. Tonight was really, really fun."
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound slugger finished his night with another double to left in the eighth, a hit that raised his slash line to .232/.296/.455. He hit safely in five straight games, has bumped his OPS up 265 points since the beginning of the week and has three homers and nine runs scored in his past six contests.
"I just worked on my load, creating a shorter path to the ball and trying to just have a more simplified approach of staying inside the ball and trying to drive the ball to all fields and hit the ball where it's pitched," Alonso said. "It's very elementary, but I was just taking too big of swings and I just cut down my swings and concentrated on squaring up the baseball as best I can."

Alonso wasn't the only Met squaring up the ball Friday. Six teammates had at least two hits, including No. 20 prospect Jhoan Urena, who slugged a three-run blast in the fifth. Pinch-hitter Vinny Siena smacked St. Lucie's second grand slam of the game, his first professional homer.
"The coolest thing that happened today was Siena hitting his first pro homer, a grand slam," Alonso said. "He's been struggling coming off the bench and now he gets himself right. That was just one little thing in a game full of great things. Urena put together some good at-bats, too. It was just crazy because everyone was swinging the bat well."
Brett Sullivan had three hits and two RBIs for the Stone Crabs, while Thomas Milone went 3-for-5 and Rays No. 30 prospectRyan Boldt reached three times and drove in two runs.