Pete Alonso gave the Orioles’ September something more than a scoreboard to chase Friday afternoon, driving two more balls out of Yankee Stadium as Baltimore rolled past New York, 10-2, in the opener of a doubleheader.
Alonso’s late surge reaches historic territory
The Orioles may be on the brink of falling out of the postseason race at 79-81, but Alonso has turned the final days of his first season in Baltimore into a power show. His two-homer game pushed him to 43 home runs, the top mark in the American League, while his 113 RBIs also lead the circuit.
That combination puts the slugger within reach of a rare spot in club history. Since the franchise arrived in Baltimore in 1954, only two Orioles have finished a season as the AL leader in both homers and RBIs.
| Player | Season | Home Runs | RBIs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Robinson | 1966 | 49 | 122 |
| Chris Davis | 2013 | 53 | 138 |
| Pete Alonso | 2026 | 43 | 113 |
Robinson paired the league leads with a Triple Crown during his 1966 season. Davis did it in 2013, when his 53 homers established Baltimore’s single-season franchise record. Alonso has a little runway left, and an increasingly loud finish.
A nine-game power burst
- On Sept. 15, Alonso began a stretch that has made him one of the game’s hottest hitters down the season’s back stretch.
- He hit two homers in Baltimore’s Monday win over Toronto.
- In Friday’s first game against the Yankees, he added another two-homer performance in a 10-2 Orioles victory.
- His seventh-inning solo homer traveled a projected 471 feet, his longest blast of 2026.
Alonso has now hit eight home runs over nine games since Sept. 15. The 471-foot drive also matched the second-longest homer of his eight-year major league career.
Only one of his big league shots has traveled farther: a 489-foot homer at Minnesota on July 17, 2019, during his rookie season with the Mets.
Baltimore’s October hopes may be slipping away, but Alonso has supplied a reason to keep watching the season’s final innings. The race for the American League’s home run and RBI crowns is still very much part of the Orioles’ closing act.
