Soto Blast Breaks 13-Game Homerless Streak

Juan Soto entered Monday hitting .250 (13-for-52) in his first 15 games as a Met. He’d gone 13 games without a home run and five without an RBI. He looked cold sporting a hoodie in the Minnesota outfield.

By Soto standards, this could qualify as a slump, though a bit of research by MMO’s Patrick Glynn shows that his 11-game stretch entering Monday with an OPS of .683 wouldn’t even be among the worst 20 11-game OPS stretches of his career. (He had a .353 OPS for 11 games in 2022. Oh my!)

Soto also entered Monday 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and in the first inning he struck out looking with Francisco Lindor on second. In the third, he grounded out with Luisangel Acuña on second. In the fifth, he popped out with Acuña on second again.

But in the seventh, with Acuña on second for the third time, Soto broke through, depositing a Jorge Alcalá changeup over the right field wall. The 405-foot blast left his bat with an exit velocity of 107.9 mph and extended the Mets lead to 5-1, which ended up the winning margin in front of 10,240 fans who endured the chilly night at Target Field.

Soto’s second homer as a Met was his first hit with a runner in scoring position since his dramatic three-run blast last October in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the American League Championship Series that helped the Yankees advance to the World Series with a victory over the Cleveland Guardians.

“I mean I was feeling good the whole game so was just trying to stay locked in and try to make good swings,” he told reporters post-game. “I was seeing pitches well. I was taking my swings on the fastball and taking those change-ups, sliders down below. I was seeing everything, so that’s why I felt good.”

Soto didn’t go more than eight games without a home run last season, but he said that wasn’t on his mind.

“I’m not trying to hit a home run at all,” he said. “I mean we trying to play team baseball right here. So whenever I have to take my walks, I’m going to take my walks. … Things are gonna happen, we just got to keep trying out there. Try to do our best to help the team.”

“It’s Juan Soto,” manager Carlos Mendoza said with a smile. “So, pretty impressive.”

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