SEE IT: Juan Soto smashes first home run with Mets

Soto's first dinger was a rope: 107.3 mph off the bat

3/29/2025, 12:56 AM

That didn't take long.

In the second at-bat of his second game with the Mets, Juan Soto lined an absolute shot off the facade of the second deck in right field for his first home run with his new club on Friday night in Houston.

With two outs and nobody on in the top of the third, Soto was down in the count 1-2. But unlike his first time up against Astros right-hander Hunter Brown, he got a cutter at the top of the zone and didn't miss the 96 mph offering.

The slugger clobbered a line-drive home run 390 feet to right (107.3 mph off the bat). And while the ball took no time to leave the park, Soto took his time to admire the home run before taking his trot around the bases.

“I know he likes the fastball,” Soto said of the at-bat after the Mets’ 3-1 win. “I was following my scouting report and tried to make good contact. He put me on the spot where I’m two strikes, I’m just trying to battle, tried to get the ball in play, see what happens.

"He leave one right too close to my barrel, and I just hit it.”

Soto's homer put the Mets up 3-0 on Houston after Mark Vientos and Jesse Winker had RBI hits in the second.

“That was pretty impressive, I’m not gonna lie,” manager Carlos Mendoza said during an in-game interview on the TV broadcast. “When he’s got the ability to turn on the pitch when it’s 96, above the strike zone, up and in. That’s pretty incredible.”

In his first at-bat against Brown, Soto was caught looking as he was badly fooled by a 1-2 sinker at the bottom of the zone. How fooled was the man with the best eye in baseball? He had words with home plate umpire Rob Drake about the call, which was clearly a correct one.

Needless to say, Soto's second crack at Brown went better for the Mets' slugger.

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