Pete Alonso shows his impact on and off the field in first game following the Adley Rutschman trade

The Baltimore Orioles won their first game of the post-Adley Rutschman era yesterday. It was a strange game. Before it started, all the players on the team were asked about seeing their longtime friend and teammate traded the day before, and the players who could even bring themselves to answer were clearly upset and emotional. Besides the reactions to the trade, a lot was going on. Former Oriole Grayson Rodriguez was making his first start against the Orioles since they traded him this past offseason. On the Orioles' side, they had a young player making his MLB debut, and on the mound they had Cade Povich making his first start in three months.

With all the emotions that were flying around and all the craziness on the field, it would have been easy for the Orioles to let this game slip away, but Pete Alonso stepped up both during the game and then at the mic and showed why the Orioles invested in him to be the veteran leader of this clubhouse.

The Orioles young players can lean on Pete Alonso's experience

Alonso's example started before the game. Reporters were circling the locker room and asking the players for their reaction to the trade deadline. As the players shared their feelings, quotes and clips of their answers started to make the rounds. Most of what the players were sharing was heartfelt sentiments about how much they were going to miss Rutschman and the other players who were traded.

When you listen to Alonso's response to the same questions about the deadline and emotions, his tone was very different than the other players'. Alonso was focused on turning the page; he recognized that trades like this happen when you don't play well, and that the Orioles were still just 2.5 games back and couldn't afford to pout or be distracted. He also highlighted that they had a young player making his MLB debut that deserved their attention and energy.

This isn't to say that Alonso's response was good and that players like Colton Cowser and Jackson Holliday, who took time to talk about how much they would miss Rutschman, were wrong to do that. It's to point out that this is the benefit of having a real veteran leader in the clubhouse. Most of the Orioles' young players have only played for the Orioles, and they don't have a lot of experience dealing with some of the rougher sides of an MLB career.

Last year, when the Orioles fired Brandon Hyde, that was the first time any of them had experienced a manager being fired. For most of them, this is the first time one of their friends that they came up through the minors with was unexpectedly traded. Of course, these young Orioles players were upset about this trade; it's uncharted emotional territory for them.

Alonso has seen it all. During his time with the New York Mets, he played for two different owners, four different GMs, and four different managers. He has endured dysfunction of all kinds. He saw big-time players leave in free agency or be traded away. He played for a 100-win team that lost in the first round of the playoffs; he played for a team that everyone left for dead after a slow start that ended up taking the Dodgers 6 games in the NLCS, and he played for teams that started the season as contenders and sold big at the deadline. He even knows what it's like to reach free agency and be spurned by the organization that you dedicated your blood, sweat, and tears to.

Not all of these experiences have been pleasant for him, but they made him the player he is today and brought him to where he is now in Baltimore as the undisputed veteran leader of a young, close-knit clubhouse that just had its hearts ripped out. So while the rest of the clubhouse deals with an emotional few days, Alonso is equipped to provide an example of how to turn the page and keep on pushing.

In the actual game, it was Alonso who came through and propelled the Orioles to victory. In the third inning, with the bases loaded, he jumped on a first-pitch slider from Grayson Rodriguez and dumped a single in center field, scoring debutant Christian Franklin and noted friend of Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser. On the field, Alonso also had two good tags to help starter Cade Povich pick off two base runners. Before the game, Alonso said the Orioles needed to play better, and on the field he held up his end of the bargain.

Post-game, it was Alonso on the mic, and with his voice going out over the loudspeaker and the airwaves, he spoke directly to the fans. He thanked them for coming out and supporting the team and promised that they were going to keep fighting and winning games before signing off, "Go O's."

This post-deadline Orioles team is not as talented as they were before the deadline. The front office punted the season when they traded key pieces the team had relied on all year, and without those players, it's now much harder to envision the team going on a run to the playoffs. However, that's not going to stop the players that are still here from trying. As of right now, they are just 1.5 games back, and they'll get a chance to play all of the teams standing between them and a playoff spot before the end of the season. If they can follow Alonso's lead and turn the page, there is still enough talent for the Orioles to make some noise this season.

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