Juan Soto Goes Yard in Second Game of Mets Career

Any reports of Juan Soto‘s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Not, of course, that there were any legitimate reasons to worry about a single strikeout in the first game of a 15-year contract. After all, Soto still reached base three times in five plate appearances in Thursday’s Mets debut — perhaps unfairly overshadowed by a strikeout at an inopportune time against a tough lefty.

Soto entered the second game of his Mets career with a .600 OBP. Two at-bats later, that number had technically gone down, but another number had shot up by an infinite degree.

For the first time in a Mets uniform, officially, the $765 million man hit a home run.

The first of potentially hundreds.

The evening started inauspiciously enough for Soto, who struck out in his first at-bat against Astros right-hander Hunter Brown. He was called out on a sinker low in the zone on a 1-2 count, and retreated back to the dugout grumbling and shaking his head. On the prior pitch, he’d chased a high fastball.

Not quite the level of plate discipline Soto is known for.

But Soto came to the plate again in the third, with the Mets already up 2-0. He laid off a close changeup that tailed outside to start the at-bat. Brown tried to challenge him above the zone again, throwing a 98 mph four-seam fastball that barely nipped the strike zone. Soto let it go this time.

He fouled off a knuckle curve to make it 1-2 again.

And then he unleashed a bazooka.

Soto swung at another high pitch — a 96 mph cutter — but this time, he whacked it 390 feet over the fence in right field. It registered at 107.3 mph off the bat. He had his timing lined up in effortless fashion, then stood and watched it go.

There was no doubt.

“One hundred percent,” Soto said when asked if he knew it was gone.

Soto added that beforehand, he’d surveyed teammates like Jesse Winker and Brett Baty about what Brown was throwing. They’d tipped him off that Brown was comfortable throwing cutters up and in. So, he was prepared for the pitch when it came, and it paid off immensely. Soto was expecting a pitch with “a lot of ride,” he said.

“He’s pretty incredible,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Not easy to do. You’re talking about a pitch that’s out of the strike zone, up and in… And he’s able to turn on it and hit on a line like that. Amazing.”

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A quiet satisfaction seemed to befall Soto as he jogged at a brisk pace around the bases. After the initial moment of admiration, there were no fancy bat flips or flashy celebrations. It was all business for the generational hitter, who got an undeniable milestone out of the way, but has only just taken the first incremental step of his much-anticipated Queens tenure.

“It’s always great to have the first one,” Soto said. “A lot of guys want to get the first one out of the way early and try to get that pressure off.”

Soto’s immediate comfort in a Mets uniform has been apparent. From gelling with his teammates off the field, to taking quality at-bats on the field, he’s taken very little time to carry his presence over to a new group. He had a classic Soto plate appearance in the sixth inning, taking two changeups below the zone and then walking on a knuckle curve that missed high.

That made three walks already for Soto in his first eight plate appearances in orange and blue. It raised his OBP to .625 through the tiny sample size thus far — which fell to .556 after a flyout in the eighth.

But it’s hardly worth complaining about, to say the least. Getting on base over half the time will do. Soto has simply shown up and done Soto things in his first couple games in a Mets uniform. It’s the type of performance that Mets fans will be fortunate enough to witness for the next decade and a half. Having that extra punch of production in the two-hole is a massive boost for this offense, especially in the long term with the elite consistency that Soto provides. It paid its first dividends — however minuscule in the grand scheme of things — in Friday’s 3-1 win.

Naturally, Soto caught the last out of the game.

Soto has a home run for the Mets. The Mets have a victory in the Soto era. We’re living in a time where those are real sentences, and it’s onto tomorrow and beyond to see what Soto and the Amazins’ can do next.

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