Alonso in elite company after home run No. 200

NEW YORK -- The Mets donned their City Connect uniforms for the first time on Saturday, and first baseman Pete Alonso looked sweet wearing the gray jersey.

The uniform honors everything about New York that makes it the World’s City -- the trains that connect the fans, the bridges that bring the boroughs together and the concrete that serves as the steady heartbeat of the city’s grit and grind.

It’s fitting that grit and grind is what best sums up Alonso, who reached a personal milestone at Citi Field on Saturday afternoon during New York’s 7-4 loss to the Cardinals when he slugged career home run No. 200 in the fifth inning against right-hander Sonny Gray.

With Brandon Nimmo on first base, Alonso swung at an 0-1 pitch and hit the ball over the right-center-field fence to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 6-4. It was Alonso’s eighth home run of the season, and he joined Darryl Strawberry (252), David Wright (242) and Mike Piazza (220) as the only Mets to clear the 200-homer mark.

“It was a really special moment,” Alonso said. “I know we were just trying to get back in the game there. It felt really nice to connect and inch a little closer. It was a really good swing. I felt good about it when the ball left the bat.”

Alonso will be a free agent after the season, but Strawberry wants to see Alonso remain a member of the Mets and break the franchise record. Strawberry loves the way Alonso plays under the bright lights of New York.

“He is a great young man, and I hope he continues to have great success in New York and with the New York Mets,” Strawberry said. “He's not afraid to play under [the pressure of New York]. To be able to play here, you have to have the personality for it. … He understands how to play [in New York]. That’s what makes you great in New York."

Strawberry isn’t the only one who admires Alonso from afar.

“Pete is obviously one of the premier power hitters in the game and makes any ballpark look small,” Wright said. “Any time he, or anybody else wearing a Mets uniform, does something special to help the team win, it gets me excited.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, by hitting home run No. 200 in his 710th career game, Alonso became the fourth-fastest player in Major League history to reach the milestone, behind Ryan Howard (658 games), Aaron Judge (671) and Ralph Kiner (706).

Alonso thought that stat was mind-boggling.

“That’s really cool," he said. "I just want to keep continuing to put good at-bats together and help my team win."

With the loss to St. Louis, the Mets find themselves back at the .500 mark at 13-13. To Alonso, though, they have come a long way, considering that they started the season 0-5.

“The past two games aren’t necessarily the results that we want, but we have been playing good baseball,” Alonso said. “We've been in these games the whole way through. To be able to come back and grind out at-bats … it’s really promising. I know it’s not necessarily ideal not to win games.

“But I think overall, we've been playing really good ball collectively as a group. We're going to continue to push forward. Tomorrow is another day, and we're going to keep doing the best that we can to play as a unit and continue to win ball games.”