NEW YORK (AP) — Hits haven’t come easy for Juan Soto during his first season with the New York Mets.
The $765 million slugger lost one Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox because of some chaos on the basepaths.
With teammate Brandon Nimmo on first in the opening inning, Soto sent a drive toward right-center, where a diving Michael A. Taylor trapped the ball in his glove off a short bounce.
Hearing disappointment from Citi Field fans, however, Nimmo thought the ball had been caught on a fly. So he scrambled back around second base and retreated quickly to first.
Soto saw Nimmo coming right at him between first and second and peeled off onto the infield grass as the White Sox threw the ball to first base.
When umpires sorted it all out, Nimmo was safe at first but Soto was called out for passing him on the basepaths. Chicago first baseman Miguel Vargas was credited with a putout.
“When Soto hit it, I thought, that’s down for sure. It’s a double or better. And so, went to go around the bag, had my back to the play, and then I heard the crowd act like the ball was caught. And so I turned around and went to go get back when I saw him on the ground, and tried to get back to first base,” Nimmo said. “It’s just one of those plays that’s kind of unfortunate.”
The safe signal indicating the ball hit the ground came from first base umpire Tom Hanahan — which Nimmo was in no position to see.
And he acknowledged he wasn’t really looking around for an umpire’s call anyway.
“I went with my first instinct as soon as I heard the crowd,” Nimmo said. “And I totally get it. I mean, it short-hopped into his glove. Honestly, if I was watching it I probably wouldn’t have even been sure what exactly to do.”
It was the latest bizarre sequence on the bases at Citi Field over the past five days.
Fortunately for the Mets, though, Pete Alonso followed with a two-run homer — the first of five straight hits off starter Jonathan Cannon.
It would have been seven in a row if not for the mixup on the basepaths.
“As baserunners, like, that can be really confusing,” Alonso said. “I mean, I couldn’t tell from the on-deck circle and I probably would have done the same thing. Again, weird play, and when you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re not really looking at the umpire. You’re trying to just see the ball, and from my vantage point I thought he caught it.”
Two batters later, Jared Young launched another two-run homer that gave New York a 4-2 lead in a 6-4 victory.
“Glad that our offense came through and it ended up not being too big of a deal there at the end,” Nimmo said.
Soto could have used the base hit, however.
The four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger winner finished 0 for 4 and is batting .228, which is 54 points below his career average heading into Tuesday night.
“Screwy play. Probably not going to see another one like that this year,” Alonso said.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Mike Fitzpatrick, The Associated Press
