HOUSTON — The baseball world had been waiting for Juan Soto’s Mets debut since he signed a record 15-year, $765 million deal with the team over the winter. And on Thursday in his first game in orange and blue, Soto did plenty of Soto things. But the Astros didn’t mind playing spoiler in their 3-1 Opening Day victory.
The thing Soto does better than anyone else in baseball is get on base. He showed that elite ability starting in his first at-bat, when he shot a single up the middle in the first inning against Houston starter Framber Valdez. Soto followed with walks in the third and eighth innings, a sight New York fans will quickly get used to. No player has drawn more walks than the four-time All-Star since he debuted in 2018.
But even while the Mets’ $765 million man did many of the things they expected him to do in the season’s opening game, the team had a quiet night offensively and barely threatened after Houston took an early lead. That is, until Astros closer Josh Hader lost his command in the ninth inning, allowing a run to score and putting runners on the corners with the go-ahead run at the plate.
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Who else would it be but Soto?
Soto began the at-bat against Hader doing what he normally does, working the count and controlling the strike zone. Once it got to 3-0, you could sense the sellout crowd at Daikin Park growing tense as one of the game’s best had the count exactly where he wanted it.
But then Hader powered back with back-to-back strikes to get the count full before he lured Soto to swing through a devastating slider to close the ballgame.
