Juan Soto will have many more chances to come through for Mets
Juan Soto of the Mets reacts after drawing a walk against the Houston Astros during the third inning on Opening Day at Daikin Park on Thursday in Houston. Credit: Getty Images/Tim Warner
HOUSTON
Long before Juan Soto stood at the plate in the ninth inning with the Mets’ Opening Day fate sitting squarely on his $765 million shoulders, manager Carlos Mendoza offered a bit of foreshadowing in the ramp-up to Thursday’s eventual pulse-pounding 3-1 loss to the Astros.
It was nearly six hours earlier, and amid all of the usual superlatives to describe Soto’s baseball genius, the sage Mendoza made sure to slip in an important reminder. As eager as the manager was to witness Soto in those new Mets road grays, doing damage for real, there was a crucial detail to keep in mind.
“He’s a special player,” Mendoza said for what felt like the millionth time, then added, “but it’s also understanding that he’s human.”
Right. There’s a reason why Mendoza ended the Soto conversation on that sentiment, and as the baseball gods would have it, we all witnessed a perfect illustration Thursday afternoon at Daikin Park, where a crowd of 42,305 hung on every pitch Astros closer Josh Hader fired at the Mets’ bat-wielding cyborg.
Watching Soto’s supporting cast relentlessly chip away in the ninth against Hader — the five-time All-Star whom David Stearns traded away during his Milwaukee tenure — gave you the sense that this was shaping up to be another fantastic Mets finish, straight from the vintage Grimace-fueled, OMG-toting highlight reels of 2024.
Despite doing virtually nothing all game against Astros ace Framber Valdez (aside from Soto reaching base three times on a single and two walks), the Mets staged an improbable rally against Hader. The kind that made everyone in Metsville dream “if only Soto can get up once more.’’ And that included the guys in the dugout, too.
Incredibly, Soto did make it there, the sixth batter that inning, stepping up after Francisco Lindor’s sacrifice fly finally put the Mets on the board, 3-1, and left runners at first and third. The scenario was too good to be true.
“Throughout the game, we were stacking better at-bats, better at-bats,” Lindor said. “I did feel like we were never out of the game. I felt like we had a chance to come back at some point and we were going to do it.”
That point reached a critical mass with Soto, his last obstacle a fading Hader, who already had thrown 29 pitches before the final showdown.
Predictably, Soto quickly jumped ahead 3-and-0, barely flinching as the sinker-slider-sinker combo veered outside the zone. By then, it seemed almost certain that Soto would take another walk, but Hader didn’t cave.
Soto took a slider that split the plate, then sprung on a 95-mph sinker at the top of the zone, fouling it back. Strike two, full count.
In Soto’s mind, he had him. What did he anticipate getting there?
“His best pitch,” Soto said. “His best pitch is the fastball, so I was sitting on the fastball.”
As it turned out, the sport’s most brilliant hitter, one of the best ever at age 26, guessed wrong. The skeletal Hader, all knees and elbows, instead whipped an 86-mph slider that skimmed like a Frisbee away from Soto as he began to swing. By the time Soto realized his mistake, it was too late to pull back. He whiffed on what came off as a half-hearted, aborted swing.
For eight innings, none of the Astros could get Soto to budge on a pitch that was mere inches from the strike zone. And yet, in the game’s most pivotal moment, the type that Soto has built his reputation and fortune on, his robotic, laser-focused reflexes failed to restrain him.
In other words, Soto was human. The desire to win the game right there, or at least keep the Mets alive for Pete Alonso to get a hero’s turn, overrode Soto’s baseball circuitry.
“We all want to do something in a big spot,” Soto said. “We’re all trying to get the knock, bring the runs in and help the team either way. But for me, I don’t mind taking a walk right there. It’s Pete behind me . . . and I think we have a better chance right there with the lefty-righty matchup. He just got me in that situation.”
This was going to happen. But the fact that it was Opening Day, after the hysteria of Soto’s winter courtship and his decision to sign that 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets, naturally raised the stakes to a much higher level, more than just the first loss in a six-month season of 162 games.
That ninth-inning moment defined why Steve Cohen did what no owner had ever done in bringing Soto to Flushing. On this specific day, however, the Mets didn’t get the payoff they had imagined.
“As a competitor, he always wants to come through, you know?” Mendoza said afterward. A moment later, the smiling manager added, “He’ll come through.”
There’s zero doubt. For most of Thursday afternoon, Soto did everything as advertised, the only glitch being his pop-up to leftfield leading off the sixth. He was as locked in as ever, and all of it seemed to be setting the stage for his ninth-inning heroics. Even the bottom of the order did its part, with rookie Luisangel Acuna drawing a 12-pitch walk, straight from the Soto handbook.
This one time, for the first time as a Met, Soto couldn’t do it himself.
“At the end of the day, if we got Juan up with a chance to win the game,” Clay Holmes said, “everybody likes his chances.”
Soto will have more chances. Presumably, with much better outcomes for the Mets.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
