Juan Soto hasn’t logged an extra-base hit since May 9.
The New York Mets superstar thought he ended that dry spell Monday night at Fenway Park, but he ultimately was made to look pretty foolish.
Soto led off the sixth inning of his team’s series opener against the Boston Red Sox and tagged a Justin Wilson fastball the opposite way. The four-time All-Star thought the ball was bound for the Green Monster seats and admired the fly from the batter’s box for a few moments before moving up the first-base line. But the baseball ended up bouncing off the wall, and Soto was held to a long single.
The 26-year-old stole second shortly thereafter, so his lack of hustle wasn’t very amplified. Still, it was a shortcoming that didn’t sit well with his manager.
“He thought he had it,” Carlos Mendoza told reporters after the Mets’ 3-1 loss, per ESPN. “But with the wind and all that, and in this ballpark — anywhere, but in particular in this one, with that wall right there — you’ve got to get out of the box. So, yeah, we’ll discuss that.”
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Soto himself pushed back on the notion that he didn’t give full effort on the base paths.
“I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard,” Soto told reporters. “If you see it today, you can tell.”
Perhaps a word from Mendoza will prompt an extra pep in Soto’s step Tuesday night when the Red Sox and the Mets meet again on Jersey Street. NESN’s full coverage of the middle game begins at 5:30 p.m. ET.
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