Watch: Pete Alonso gets hit in the face as he tries to catch a ball vs Royals
The New York Mets have had a disappointing season, and on Tuesday night, star first baseman Pete Alonso took part in a play that seemed to represent the team's season as a whole so far.
Alonso went in to try to make a grab but was struck in the face with the pop-up while in the foul zone.
Talkin' Baseball shared a clip of the incident on Twitter:
Pete Alonso took a ball to the face trying to field this popup. He's staying in the game pic.twitter.com/QQjVFljK2y
The fact that Alonso was able to play throughout and didn't appear hurt is positive news for the Mets. He had just hit his 31st home run of the season when the incident took place.
The misplayed foul ball resulted in Maikel Garcia's at-bat continuing, and rather than being the inning's second out, he ended up hitting a sacrifice fly to tie the game for the Royals.
This presented a dilemma for Alonso and the Mets. Simply put, that is how the Mets' season has played out.
The Mets began to play on Tuesday sitting in last place in the National League Wild Card race after offloading a number of seasoned veterans, including starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, both of whom will go down in history as Hall of Famers.
The 2022 MLB All-Star Game was Alonso's second All-Star pick of his career. He took part in the Home Run Derby and advanced to the quarter-finals. Alonso set a new Mets single-season record for RBIs when he scored five runs against the Oakland Athletics on September 25 to give him 125 overall.
In the fourth innings, against pitcher Norge Ruiz, he shattered the mark with a two-run home drive that traveled 451 feet (137 m). Previously, Mike Piazza (1999) and David Wright (2008) held the Mets' RBI record.
Pete Alonso's current agreement with the Mets
During the arbitration round, Alonso and the New York Mets reached an agreement on a $14.5 million compensation for the 2023 season.
Alonso passed Carlos Beltrán for sixth place on the Mets' all-time home run record on April 7 during a game against the Miami Marlins, when he hit his 150th home run of the season.
He also passed Ryan Howard (495 games) as the second-quickest player to hit 150 home runs in 538 games.