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Before Juan Soto made his much-talked about move to Queens, he spent one fantastic season in the Bronx, leading the New York Yankees to their first World Series since 2009. The Dominican faced off against his former team on Friday, as the New York Mets hosted their cross-city rivals for the first of three games set to take place at Citi Field over the weekend.
Marcus Stroman, who started the game for the series opener for the visitors, commended Soto's quality at the plate during a post-game interview, calling him "one of the best to ever do it."
"He (Juan Soto) is one of the best for a reason, you know, he's extremely locked in right now," Marcus Stroman said, via SNY. "He's all over everything. He's just an incredible hard AB (at-bat). He's one of the best to ever do it. You have to kind of play a game [every time you face him], and he was ahead of me today."
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Juan Soto takes Marcus Stroman deep in the first inning to extend his hot hitting streak
Having signed the biggest contract in league history, expectations of Juan Soto were naturally sky high when the season began. Unfortunately, the Dominican failed to hit the ground running in Queens and took his time to settle in.
Looking at his performances more recently, though, it appears Juan Soto has well and truly put those early struggles behind him. In the past month, the four-time All-Star has batted .322, with 11 home runs and 20 RBIs, making him one of the hottest hitters in the majors.
The 26-year-old continued his hot streak on Friday, taking former teammate Marcus Stroman deep in his very first at-bat of the game, hitting a towering home run to left center field.
The two-run homer, which canceled out the solo blasts from Jasson Dominguez and Aaron Judge in the top of the first, proved extremely important in what turned out to be a hard-fought 6-5 win for the Mets in the end.
With the Mets battling for top spot in the NL East and aiming to be a major contender for the World Series come October, fans will be hoping Soto can now stay hot at the plate, having finally come into his groove.
