This Pete Alonso HR may be the highest of '19

NEW YORK -- From impact to touchdown, the baseball floated in the air for 7.3 seconds. Pete Alonso was following it only somewhat, sprinting around the bases due to uncertainty that the ball would land over the fence. When it clanged off the front of the wall instead, Alonso dug in for third base, sliding into the bag.

Then, Alonso hopped to his feet and jogged the remaining 90 feet as third-base umpire Chris Segal signaled home run. Alonso sweated out a brief replay review before the umpires made a final ruling -- the call stood, and it was a homer off Rockies reliever Jake McGee.

“Honestly, I saw it go off the bat, I’m like, ‘Wow, that ball is really up there,’” Alonso said after the Mets' 5-3 win on Saturday night. “Thankfully, it carried over the wall for me, because I thought it was just a fly ball.”

“It was up there forever,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said.

For Alonso, it was not just any routine fly. Coming off his bat at a 48-degree angle, it was the highest-hit over-the-fence home run in the Majors this season. Only five players have hit homers with higher launch angles since Statcast began tracking in 2015 (including Avisail Garcia's 51-degree inside-the-park homer for the Rays last month).

“It was definitely an interesting one,” Alonso said. “Probably one of the most interesting ones I’ve hit, for sure.”

Alonso has plenty to choose from. It was his 21st homer of the season, putting him two shy of Major League leader Christian Yelich of the Brewers. Alonso's 21 homers are also tied for the second most by a National League rookie prior to the All-Star break, and he's five shy of Darryl Strawberry’s Mets rookie record.

“Right now, it’s so fun to watch,” Callaway said. “He’s getting everybody to buy into Pete Alonso and who he is. He’s one of our leaders. For a rookie to kind of take on that leadership role like he’s doing, and perform like an All-Star, it’s unbelievable. And it’s because he does everything the right way at all times.”