Juan Soto hunting mistakes, coming through in big moments for Mets

As it has happened many times before, the big moment found Juan Sotoon Tuesday night at Citi Field. 

With the Mets down two in the bottom half of the eighth inning, Soto came to the plate to face Jose A. Ferrer, Washington’s hard-throwing left-hander out of the bullpen.

After taking a strike on a 99.4 mph sinker and fouling off a second one that came in at 100.1 mph, Soto, like the Mets had been all night, was behind. But his approach didn’t change; he was trying to “hunt the mistakes.”

“I know that guy, and he has nasty stuff. I’m just trying to stay locked into my zone,” he said. “He missed in my zone and I made the adjustment.”.

And when Ferrer’s 0-2 slider hung in the middle of the zone, and Soto smacked it (107.3 mph off the bat). In fact, he nearly hit the ball too well as right fielder Rober Hassell III looked to have a decent shot at making the catch, but the ball just dipped below his glove, allowing Starling Marte to score all the way from first.

“How things are going, I definitely was hoping [it] got down,” Soto said. “I thought the ball was a little farther than it went, but got it done.”

Of course, Soto had the hit, but praised the man who set the table for him and the man after, Pete Alonso, who pulverised a game-tying hit to score Soto en route to the Mets’ extra-inning win.

“That was a 12-year veteran taking an at-bat right there,” Soto said of Marte’s ability to work a walk after falling behind 0-2. “He did a really good job, he stayed on his plan. Everybody wants to come through in that situation, but he stayed patient and give myself and Pete another chance to come through.”

The late double was Soto’s second big hit of the night. In the bottom of the third, Soto battled MacKenzieGore, who Washington got from the Padres in the trade that sent the slugger to San Diego in 2022, and drove a 2-2 slider that got a lot of the middle of the plate for a 373-foot opposite-field home run.

“Just a great swing,” Soto said. “Another mistake, I’m waiting for mistakes and he made a mistake and I put the ball in play.”

While the homer landed just over the left field wall, Soto spent time admiring the drive and appeared to exchange words with Gore. The slugger was coy about the interaction, “We were just saying ‘hi’ at each other. That’s it.”

With the two-hit day, Soto is now batting .341 (14-for-41) with 14 runs, three doubles, four homers, eight RBI, and 14 walks in his last 12 games. Does he feel this is about his luck starting to change after a slow (by his high standards) start?

“Little by little, we just gotta be patient,” he said. “Keep doing my thing, definitely really happy to see the ball landing in some spots and coming through in big moments. I’m really happy, I’m just gonna try and keep it the same way.”

While his bat will always get the headlines, Soto also contributed in the field, taking a run off the board when he nailed Jose Tena at the plate as he tried to score from first with two outs in the top half of the second inning.

The right fielder, who had been working with the Mets’ pitching coaches to sort out some mechanical issues with his arm, said he feels great with how he is progressing in the outfield.

“I feel like we going in the right path with the coaches,” he said. “We’ve been doing great things so far and I’m happy for that.”

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