The All-Star teams will be revealed on July 4, and Pete Alonso is waiting to find out whether he’s an American League reserve after five selections in the NL with the Mets.

Alonso was chosen in 2019, ’22, ’23, ’24 and ’25. The 2020 Midsummer Classic was cancelled after the pandemic delayed the start of the season.

Alonso won the Home Run Derby in 2019 and ’21, the first as a rookie when he defeated Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the final round at Progressive Field in Cleveland. He defended the title at Coors Field in Denver by outslugging the Orioles’ Trey Mancini, a sentimental favorite after returning from Stage 3 colon cancer. Alonso joined Ken Griffey Jr. (1998-99) and Yoenis Céspedes (2013-14) as the only back-to-back Derby champions in history.

As a five-time participant, Alonso would seem to be a lock if asked to do it again. But he declined the invitation last summer, saying, “I want to fully be able to enjoy the festivities.”

“As fun as it is, for me, it’s not necessarily the work or the swings,” he said. “It’s more the adrenaline spikes up and down. … I’m really excited to have those days off.”

Would Alonso accept an offer for July 13 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia?

“I don’t know,” he replied.

“I’ve got to see how my body feels, because I could say, ‘Yeah, I want to do it,’ and then something bad could happen.”

The words barely left Alonso’s mouth when he turned and knocked on the side of his wood locker. He wasn’t taking  any chances.

“Like, you know, I don’t want to jinx anything,” he said. “If it works out, then I’ll think about it closer to it. It’s such a fun event, but I just really haven’t put any thought to it because trying to win ballgames here, trying to do whatever I can to help this team win and make a positive impact to kind of right the ship a little bit. So All-Star and Home Run Derby stuff for me, that’s secondary.

“Primary thing is I want to win games here. I want to help these guys get to the postseason and feel that glory that comes with performing well and winning games in October.”

The Orioles won the first game on their homestand, defeating the Nationals 3-1 and improving to 39-44. They filed into the clubhouse still 1 1/2 back of the Wild Card.

This was exactly the response needed after Wednesday’s brutal 10-inning loss in Anaheim.

“I think coming off a day off, you want to come out and kind of hit the ground running, because I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt a little sluggish today,” said Coby Mayo, who registered his first career multi-double game. “You want to hit the ground running, you want to take the lead early, you want to play good defense. I think this was a perfect game for us to come out after an off-day and kind of make a grindy, close win. It feels really good.”

Some players check the standings on a daily basis and others avoid locking into them this early.

“Obviously we’re aware, but I wouldn’t put any weight on anything,” Alonso said. “I think it’s important to know kind of like where you stand, but also not put any true weight or make it be something it’s not, because obviously things can change. Other teams can lose, we can go on a heater. There’s gonna be so much jockeying back and forth with spots up until like the last week or so.”

“I’ve been on a team (in 2024) where it’s like 28 other teams were done with their season on Sunday and I had to play two games to decide whether we’re going to the playoffs or not on Monday. So even past the last day, things can matter. Anything can happen. But for us, I still think we have the potential and the expectations to do great things in October. We just need to earn that right during the season. We just need to play clean baseball.”

And not become distracted by their placement in the Wild Card chase or pursuit of the division title.

“I think for the players it’s a little bit different than everybody else,” said Jeremiah Jackson. “I think that we understand that it is a long season and a lot of things could happen in the course of a week, two weeks, a month. So I think the best way to look at it as a player is, we just keep pushing. If that means that we’re first in the division or dead last, that’s gonna happen regardless, one way or the other. The stuff that we can control is how we go about every day.

“I mean for me personally, I’m not looking at the standings, I’m not worried about that. I’m just more so worried about, who’s pitching for them next and how we’re gonna plan to attack them and what we’re gonna do to give ourselves the best chance to win.”

The Orioles had a golden opportunity to post a winning record on the West Coast trip but lost 7-6 in 10 innings Wednesday – another gut-punch after blowing a 5-3 lead in the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium.

“We have a short memory,” Jackson said, “and going back home was good.”

Jackson added that the message inside the clubhouse was, simply, to “just keep going.”

“This is kind of the nature of the game,” he said. “You win some, you lose some, and at the end of the day you’ve got to be ready for the next one. I think that’s kind of the approach that we all take is just get ready for the game today.”

Players remain confident in their ability to go on a run. To stack wins. To avoid a total collapse.

“A hundred percent,” Jackson said. “I think that we are really getting close to kind of doing something special. It’s a talented group on both sides of the ball, and I think we’re right there.”

“We know exactly what we need to do, we know what’s expected of us, not just externally but internally,” Alonso said. “We know that we have potential, we know we have talent, we know all of us have the want and the desire to go play in the playoffs. But you’ve got to execute and we have to do that.

“We have the potential and talent to get there and do that, and it’s the reason why it’s frustrating, because we know we can. Just that we haven’t. But the biggest thing is just kind of flushing that, turning the page, and you do that with the win.”