Pete Alonso has received a hero's welcome from the New York Mets fans at Citi Field in his first return to his old stomping grounds as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. This could not have been any more apparent than when Alonso hit a home run in the ninth inning of their contest on Tuesday to tie the game at 3-3. The reception from the crowd after Alonso hit a long ball, which was the 300th of his career, made it seem as though Baltimore was playing at Camden Yards.

The Mets crowd, despite seeing their team blow a ninth-inning lead, was cheering Alonso on as if he was still a hometown player. While it's understandable as to why Mets fans miss Alonso dearly, rooting for a member of the opposition made it so that the atmosphere in Citi Field on Tuesday became rather odd.

According to Mets pitcher Sean Manaea, who started for the team on the night and allowed two earned runs in 5.1 innings of work in an eventual 7-5 defeat to the Orioles in extras, he has never seen anything like it in his career.

“I've just never seen anything like that before. I know the guys in here, we are grinding our butts off and stuff like that happens. It's kind of crazy,” Manaea told reporters after the game, via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

Article Continues Below

It's understandable as well as to why Mets players may feel a bit slighted that their own fans have turned against them. Nonetheless, it's clear that fans are simply irate at the front office for letting Alonso go to begin with, with many fans believing that the 31-year-old first baseman should have been a franchise lifer.

The Mets have been playing better baseball since the trade deadline, but their season-long struggles have made it so that their yearning for Alonso has only grown stronger. Grabbing wins is the best way to shut down fan unrest, and that should be Manaea and company's main goal heading into 2027.