Any semblance of a slump for Juan Soto is long gone.
After Wednesday night, the rest of his New York Mets teammates hope they’ll be saying the same thing.
The Mets will look to salvage a split of a four-game series Thursday night, when they host the Atlanta Braves in a battle of longtime National League East rivals.
Griffin Canning (7-3, 3.91 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against fellow right-hander Grant Holmes (4-6, 3.71).
Soto made baseball history Wednesday night when he homered twice to lead New York to a much-needed 7-3 win.
The two-homer game was the 27th of Soto’s career, breaking a tie with Hall of Fame member Jimmie Foxx for the most multi-homer games before turning 27. Soto won’t turn 27 until Oct. 25.
“Soto obviously with a huge game — we witnessed greatness today,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s history here.”
Soto is batting .333 with 11 homers, 20 RBIs and a major league-leading 24 walks and 1.260 OPS since May 30.
He hit .224 with eight homers, 25 RBIs, 20 walks and a .745 OPS in his first 55 games.
Soto has been one of the few bright spots lately for New York, which won for just the second time in 12 games Wednesday night. The seven runs were as many as the Mets scored in the previous three games combined and marked just the second time they’ve scored more than five runs since June 8.
“It’s good to see the guys continue to fight, continue to grind and try and find ways to get through this stretch,” Mendoza said. “It was good to shake hands after the game.”
For the Braves, the loss magnified their minimal margin for error with ace left-hander Chris Sale on the injured list after suffering a broken left rib cage against the Mets on June 18. Sale’s rotation spot is occupied by 20-year-old rookie Didier Fuentes, who lasted just 3 1/3 innings in his second career start Wednesday.
“He’s a young kid that’s going to learn from every time he toes that (mound), he’s going to learn something different,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
Atlanta starters have lasted fewer than six innings in five of the seven games since Sale was injured. Sale, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, has a 2.52 ERA in 15 starts, but the remainder of the rotation has a 4.04 ERA.
Canning and Holmes each earned the win in their previous starts last Saturday. Canning allowed four runs (three earned) over five innings as the Mets beat the Phillies, 11-4, while Holmes tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings in the Braves’ 7-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.
Canning took the defeat in his lone career start against the Braves last Aug. 17, when he gave up seven runs over 4 1/3 innings for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-3 loss. He was traded to Atlanta in exchange for Jorge Soler on Oct. 31 but was not tendered a contract.
Holmes didn’t factor into the decision in his only start against the Mets last Sept. 30, when he allowed one hit over four scoreless innings in the Braves’ 3-0 win in the regular-season finale.
–Field Level Media
