Padres ace Chris Paddack vs Mets rookie Pete Alonso face off again

Padres ace Chris Paddack struck out Mets rookie Pete Alonso twice in their first matchup in early May, but the feud goes back to Alonso’s home in New York. Who will come out on top tonight?

San Diego Padres ace Chris Paddack was absolutely lights out in his first month in the big leagues, but New York Mets rookie Pete Alonso won the Rookie of the Month Award in April.

That lit a fire under Paddack and he proceeded to call out Alonso setting up the first matchup in an epic rivalry.

"“Does he deserve (the Rookie of the Month honor)? Absolutely. But I’m coming for him. We’ll see Monday who the top dog is. Do I wish it was me? Yeah. But the way I look at it is, do you want to be the Rookie of the Month or the Rookie of the Year? We’ll see, man.”"

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

In their first matchup, Paddack dominated Alonso. He consistently threw his fastball up in the zone and Alonso couldn’t catch up to it.

He struck out twice vs “The Sheriff” and then hit the laziest grounder ever to third base.

Paddack-3 vs Alonso-0

Since then they have been on different paths. Paddack was sent down to the minors and Alonso won the derby.

Mets fans are trying to tell people Paddack was sent down because he sucks but he was sent down because the Padres have made it clear all season ling that he is on an innings limit.

He came back up and was back to being the Chris Paddack who struck out 11 Mets hitters including Alonso (not once but twice) in early May.

In Paddack’s most recent start, he had a no-hitter into the 8th inning. He went 7 2/3 innings, allowed just 1 hit, and struck out 8 in his most dominant pitching performance of the year other than the Mets strikeout barrage against Jacob deGrom.

Pete Alonso, who is probably the most overrated rookie in the National League, won the Home Run Derby which is literally batting practice so I don’t see how that is a big accomplishment. But in actual games that matter, he is 4 for 34 since the All-Star Break so that is not a Rookie of the Year performance to me.

The game kicks off at 7:10 ET.

My Prediction: Chris Paddack dominates yet again and strikes out Pete Alonso at least once and doesn’t allow him to get a hit.