Juan Soto Gets Yankees Going With HR After Injury Scare

NEW YORK — There was a brief moment of fear in Yankee Stadium Wednesday night during the sixth inning of perhaps the Yankees’ best win of the 2024 season.

That’s what happens when Juan Soto jumps halfway down the first base line and drops to his knees after hitting a ball with the top of his right foot three weeks before the start of the postseason.

Soto remained in the ground as trainer and manager Aaron Boone tended to him before a hushed crowd. He tried to walk it off, but the pain didn’t seem to go away. He limped. He was clearly uncomfortable. It didn’t matter. Soto stayed in the game anyway to continue his at-bat against Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans, an All-Star who had been doing his thing with the Yankees up until that point.

With that, the stage was set for Soto’s latest signature moment in pinstripes.

Soto fouled off the next pitch from the other side with a controlled swing. Ragans followed with a curveball. This time Soto was ready, throwing the pitch into the right-field seats for a go-ahead two-run home run in the Yankees’ eventual 4-3, 11-inning victory.

“It was really painful, but at the end of the day I just tried to focus on the at-bat,” Soto said. “Sometimes when you hit yourself like that, you kind of get a little removed from the at-bat, so I just tried to focus, take my time and get in there and make good contact.”

The Yankees had to overcome another late-inning deficit to defeat the playoff-bound Royals and win the three-game series. Jazz Chisholm Jr. delivered the coup de grace with his first career walk-off hit as the Yankees took advantage of a loss to the Baltimore Orioles to take a 1.5-game lead in the American League East with 16 games remaining.

But the match changed with Soto’s blow – and the emotional battle that followed.

“Big shot from Juan there,” Boone said. “A little rope-a-dope. Came off the mat and put one on the chairs.”

The Yankees dugout erupted, including Boone, when Soto made contact. Soto flipped his bat, yelled and pumped his chest before beginning his ginger trot around the bases. He was 2-for-his-previous-18 with seven strikeouts. He had just two home runs since Aug. 25. But he said his frustration stemmed from what had happened two pitches earlier.

“You get really mad when you hit yourself,” Soto said. “That’s just the way it is. Not mad at the pitcher or anything, just mad at myself. But when you get through it like that, (you feel) a little relief.”

The blast was Soto’s 39th home run of the season, marking the third time in his career that he had reached 100 RBIs. Ragans had thrown 543 curveballs in his major league career without allowing a home run to the field, according to ESPN Research. Soto, on bad terms, put No. 544 on the seats.

“He has a really good command of the theater here,” Boone said.