Juan Soto delivers big blow in Mets' win over Dodgers
Juan Soto of the New York Mets connects on his fourth-inning, two-run double against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
If it felt like an eternity since Juan Soto had been the deciding factor in a Mets victory, take some solace. The eternity is over.
Soto struck the big blow on Saturday night — a mammoth two-run double to centerfield to cap a three-run fourth-inning rally — as the Mets came back from a two-run deficit to earn a 5-2 victory over the Dodgers before 41,332 at Citi Field.
“This guy’s been very unlucky,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I feel like every time there’s runners on base, he hits] a 110-mph, 115-mph ball] at somebody . . . It was good to see him finally get the results . . . We wanted it. He wanted it.”
“It was a great feeling coming through,” said Soto, who hit four balls at 102 mph or harder. “It just definitely feels better, you know, after so many hard balls hit and everything. You see one landing and, yeah, it always feels good.”
Soto had a big co-star in starter David Peterson. The lefthander was nothing short of outstanding in his 7 2⁄3 innings after the Mets had to use every pitcher in their bullpen during Friday night’s 13-inning loss.
“The way we had our bullpen today, he knew the assignment, and that’s a big boy’s performance right there for him,” Mendoza said.
Peterson’s 99-pitch effort included seven strikeouts. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani was 0-for-4 with three of those whiffs.
“He made him look human,” Mendoza said.
Los Angeles’ other two former MVPs, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, went 1-for-6 against him.
Edwin Diaz came on in the eighth with the Mets ahead 4-2 and recorded the final four outs for his 11th save. He got the first three outs on strikeouts, including Betts and Freeman.
Ohtani, Betts and Freeman are an aggregate 2-for-25 in the series.
Peterson (3-2) allowed the two runs in the second inning and gave up five hits and two walks in his fourth straight quality start. He didn’t need more than 16 pitches in any inning and became more and more efficient after he was given a lead. In the fifth, he needed only 12 pitches. In the sixth, he required only nine. In the seventh, he retired the side with only seven.
“I just tried to give these guys everything I had and go as deep as I could,” Peterson said. “I think as we got later into the game, I was trying to be efficient with my pitches and continue to get back in the dugout as fast as we could, let those guys hit and try and keep myself in the game.”
Brett Baty was 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, including a run-scoring double in the eighth for an insurance run. It was part of an 11-hit attack by the Mets. Soto, Pete Alonso and Luis Torrens each had two hits. Tyrone Taylor extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single in the second inning.
The teams have split the first two games in this rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. The Mets will send Kodai Senga to the mound in the rubber game Sunday night.
The Mets’ three-run rally in the fourth off Los Angeles starter Tony Gonsolin came with them down 2-1 and started with Torrens drilling a rocket single into rightfield. Gonsolin retired the next two batters but then seemed to lose the strike zone. He threw eight straight balls — four-pitch walks to Baty and Francisco Lindor — to load the bases. Starling Marte followed with a slow bouncer that died behind the pitcher’s mound for an infield single that tied the score and set the scene for Soto.
As Soto walked to the plate, a roar from the Citi Field crowd rose up in anticipation. Soto hadn’t had an extra-base hit since his home run against the Cubs on May 9 — an 11-game streak. Since then, he’d been 8-for-46 at the plate. But he crushed a 2-and-2 split-fingered fastball from Gonsolin that caromed off the wall in centerfield. It drove in Baty and Lindor for a 4-2 lead, but Marte was cut down at the plate on a relay from Betts in shallow center.
“When I hit it, I was like, just don’t catch it,” Soto said. “I wasn’t thinking it was going that far. When it hit the wall, it actually shocked me.”
Mendoza said the success Soto found Saturday was bound to happen.
“I know the player . . . [and] I know how he handles adversity,” he said. “Look, there’s a big-time track record there. So for us to worry about him? Not really. He’s too good, and we know that sooner rather than later, the results are going to be there . . . He’s Juan Soto.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
