Tampa Bay Rays at Baltimore Orioles

This one was clearly fair. No doubt about it, and no replay review needed. Two nights after Pete Alonso thought he had hit his 30th home run of the season -- until his towering fly ball over the left-field pole was called foul, then stood following a review \-\- the Polar Bear reached the milestone in a big way. His go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth inning lifted the Orioles to a series-opening 5-3 win over the Rays on Friday at Camden Yards. Not only was Alonso’s latest home run well within play, but it traveled a Statcast-projected 443 feet to deep left-center field, his longest of the year. His previous long was a 439-footer against the Mariners on June 11. Alonso became the seventh active MLB player to post seven seasons with 30-plus homers, joining Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, Manny Machado, Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout and Kyle Schwarber (who has eight). Alonso, Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani are the only ones to hit 30 or more in each of the past six years. “Great, sure, awesome,” Alonso said of reaching the mark yet again. “But at the end of the day, I just want to win games." It’s been quite a debut season in Baltimore for Alonso, who signed a five-year, $155 million contract this past offseason. He’s been as advertised in so many ways -- from the offense to the leadership to the team-first mentality. He’s been better than expected in others, such as his defense at first base and sporadic bursts of surprising speed. But Alonso is never one to gloat about himself or his accomplishments. Others in the O’s clubhouse, however, are always ready to heap praise on the guy. “All I can say is I’m glad it’s me not pitching against him anymore and I can sit in the dugout and actually enjoy homers when he hits them,” said left-hander Trevor Rogers, who allowed three runs in seven strong innings. “He’s a special player, a special human. I’m glad that he’s in this clubhouse, and he’s been playing some unbelievable baseball for us, and hopefully, that’ll continue for him." The 31-year-old Alonso is only the fourth free-agent signee in franchise history to club 30 homers in his first year with the team, joining Albert Belle (37 in 1999), Miguel Tejada (34 in 2004) and Nelson Cruz (40 in ‘14).