As things stand, Juan Soto still won’t be heading to the All-Star Game next week in Atlanta, but he continues showing exactly why he should be.
The slugger has carried his historic month of June into the first two weeks of July.
Soto helped put things away on Friday night, using the opposite-field to go back-to-back with Francisco Lindor in the top of the ninth as the Mets secured a 8-3 series-opening victory in Kansas City.
He struck again on Saturday afternoon, this time lifting a two-run shot off of Royals right-hander Jonathan Bowlan into the fountain in right-center to get the scoring started in the top of the third.
The blast traveled 431 feet and left the bat at a scalding 106.6 mph.
It proved to be a difference-maker, as the Mets held on for a second straight victory.
“That was pretty impressive,” Carlos Mendoza said. “You don’t see too many people go up there in this ballpark, off the bat it was definitely pretty impressive — I’ve see a lot of balls hit by Juan and I don’t know that is the hardest one.”
JUAN SOTO LIFT-OFF TO THE WATERFALL!
HIS 23RD HOME RUN OF THE SEASON! pic.twitter.com/oCd9mjKa2e
— SNY (@SNYtv) July 12, 2025
Soto now has 23 long balls on the season, which ties his first-half career-high.
He’s also up to a .266 average with 56 RBI and a .919 OPS over his first 95 games as a Met.
Still, somehow not good enough to be among the NL All-Stars.
“He’s been doing this for the last month and a half or so,” Mendoza said. “It’s hard to understand and believe that he’s going home for the next four days for now as opposed to going to Atlanta, but that’s something that’s out of our hands.
“The good thing is he continues to play the way he’s capable of and as expected — he’s a guy who is going to just go out there and he’s going to continue to do everything he can to help us win baseball games, he’s an All-Star.”
Though Soto has been particularly locked in of late — driving in runs in four of his last five games — he says it has nothing to do with his surprising snub.
“You just forget about that,” the slugger said. “It’s baseball, it’s part of it — like I said before, it’s a roster of 25 players and there are like 300 players in the league, so it’s really tough to get in, next time I’m just going to try harder and see what I can do.”
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