After slugging his first residence run with the New York Mets on Friday evening, Juan Soto insisted he isn’t burdened by the lofty expectations to carry out after signing his file deal.
“Just thinking about what we can do and what we can be capable of doing as a team I think it takes all the pressure off,” he stated. “Because we are here. We are the New York Mets. I mean we’re not here as the Juan Soto Mets. We’re here as a team.”
Soto’s homer helped the Mets to a 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros.
The shot got here within the third. With two outs and nobody on, Soto drove a 1-2 pitch from Hunter Brown deep to proper to provide New York a 3-0 lead.
“It was pretty incredible,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza stated. “Not easy to do. You’re talking about a pitch that’s out of the strike zone, up and in. I think it’s a cutter 96 and he’s able to turn on it and hit it on a line like that — yeah, amazing.”
The 26-year-old Soto watched the ball because it sailed into the outfield after which slowly began strolling towards first base earlier than flippantly flipping his bat. The homer traveled 390 toes.
Requested if he knew it was gone straight away, Soto grinned and stated: “100%.”
His first residence run of the season comes after he hit a career-high 41 for the Yankees final season.
“It’s always great to have the first one,” he stated. “You always want to get the first one out of the way early.”
He smiled barely as he started to around the bases earlier than pounding his chest and elevating each of his fingers skyward as he reached residence plate.
His large hit got here a day after he struck out on a full-count slider from nearer Josh Hader that was means exterior the strike zone with two on and two out in a 3-1 opening-day loss.
Mendoza wasn’t stunned to see Soto bounce again after Thursday’s robust ending.
“He’s Juan Soto, he’s gonna come through more times than not,” he stated. “What you want is to give him and the guys a chance to win a baseball game. We we did that yesterday and we didn’t get the W. Today, he came in and did what he did. He’s a special player.”
Earlier than that, Soto singled and walked twice Thursday in his Mets debut. The slugger signed a $765 million, 15-year contract as a free agent in December.
Soto struck out on his first at-bat Friday evening earlier than homering his second time up.
