Carlos Mendoza will speak with Juan Soto about hustling out of the batter’s box, the Mets manager said after Monday’s 3-1 loss at the Boston Red Sox.
Mendoza was asked about Soto’s leadoff at-bat in the sixth inning when he sent Justin Wilson‘s 3-2 fastball off the middle of the Green Monster and settled for a single.
Soto appeared to be admiring what he seemingly thought was a home run, walked backward out of the box and jogged up the line before Jarren Duran‘s barehand catch and throw to second base kept Soto at first.
“We’ll talk to him about it,” Mendoza said. “Tonight, obviously, someone gets a hold of one and knows when he gets it, it’s Juan. And he thought he had it, the wind and all that. And in this ballpark … with that wall right there, you’ve got to get out of the box. So we’ll discuss that.”
The wind had been blowing in from that direction and the 101.9 mph drive went just 347 feet. In the first inning, Pete Alonso was similarly a bit slow coming out of the box when his drive (109 mph) carried just 365 feet and went off the wall. Alonso, who broke for second, was thrown out there on a perfect throw from Duran.
Juan Soto singles off the Green Monster and then steals second base on the next pitch pic.twitter.com/BQoIQAkmlO
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 20, 2025
Soto stole second base on the first pitch as Alonso worked a walk, but Brandon Nimmo grounded into a 5-4-2 double play and Mark Vientos flew out to right field to strand Soto at third.
“I hit it pretty hard … tried to get to second, but it wasn’t enough,” Soto said.
Soto was asked if being “slow getting out of the box” is something that he needs “to be more aware of.”
“No,” Soto said. “I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard. If you see it today, you could tell.”
In the eighth inning of Sunday’s 8-2 loss to the Yankees, Soto led off and grounded up the middle to a sliding DJ LeMahieu at second base but did not appear to get out of the box fast enough.
LeMahieu threw from his knees and beat Soto to the bag by a few steps.
Soto and the Mets (29-19) look to rebound Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. on SNY in the second game of a three-game series with the Red Sox (24-25).
“I mean, it’s part of the game,” said Soto, whose 1-for-4 evening brings his batting average to .246 through 47 games. “It’s not always going to be great. We’re going to have up and downs. We’ve just got to keep our chin up and keep moving forward. It’s a game of failure. Sometimes you’re going to fail, and you’ve just got to keep moving forward. It doesn’t matter what.”
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