HOUSTON — Allow Juan Soto to reintroduce himself.
One day after hitting his first home run as a member of the New York Mets, the visitors clubhouse at Daikin Park was still buzzing. It wasn’t just that he hit a home run and when he did — in the third inning of a 2-0 game off Houston right-hander Hunter Brown — it was how he managed to do it that impressed. Soto turned on a 1-2 cutter from Brown, a 96 MPH pitch that was just above the zone and broke inside toward practically at the hands of the left-handed slugger.
“Oh, sick,” Pete Alonso told the New York Daily News on Saturday. “I mean, he hit it off the facade of the second deck. It’s always super fun here because everything is sort of closed in, so homers here just look awesome.”
If you blinked, you might have missed the swing that took the ball right down the right field line off the ribbon banner of the second deck. The roof was closed, so as Alonso said, home runs have a different look to them here. This one, in particular, looked as though it was going to drill a hole right through the stands and land outside on one of the highways.
Breaking down his laser of a shot, Soto offered some insight into how he works at the plate. The 26-year-old had been watching how Brown sequenced his pitches. He consulted left-handed hitters Brett Baty and Jesse Winker, and figured out he could expect something up in the zone.
“You see what he’s been doing the whole day,” Soto said. “I asked Winker, I asked Beatty, they said, they say he feels pretty comfortable with the cutter up and in. So I was kind of aware of that pitch, definitely. You’re hunting for something in the strike zone, but he’s a guy who has a lot of ride [on his pitches].”
Soto was booed as he stepped up to the plate for that at-bat and for just about every other in the series. It’s not just that he was on the 2019 Washington Nationals team that defeated the Astros in the World Series, it’s that he’s Juan Soto and he kills pitchers of every variety from every team. He hears the opposing fans even in the most hostile environments, but he chooses to tune them out.
“Just turn it off,” Soto said. “Just think about yourself, and what you’re going to do in the moment. Just be focused and forget about what is going on around you. I remember when I was a kid, they used to tell me, ‘If they’re not booing you, you’re not doing things right.’ So I feel like every time they boo me, it means something for me.”
The negative fanfare is a compliment of sorts. It doesn’t get under his skin.
“For him, and for every great hitter, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Alonso said. “The one word I can use to kind of describe him is imminent. If he doesn’t get you now, he’s going to get you in the future. He’s gonna get you that next time. When the opportunity presents itself, he’s always ready. He’s never not ready. So, I mean, if the guy on the mound gets let off the hook in the moment, then the next at bat, he’s going to put up [runs].”
Soto plays with emotion, but underneath, there is ice in his veins. He takes the pressure off of himself by focusing on the team, something that actually adds to the stress and magnitude of some moments. Some players want to come through for their team in big moments so badly that they try too hard and do too much in one at-bat.
But Soto is able to focus on his execution in the moment because he knows his team will be there to pick him up.
“Just think about the team, just be out there for the new team,” Soto said. “Don’t be thinking about yourself. I think that’s one of the things that’s going to take pressure off, just thinking about what we can do and what we can be capable of doing as a team.”
Hearing this, it makes sense why he lobbied the Mets to re-sign Alonso as protection for him in the lineup. It shows the ...
