Juan Soto has hit a lot of home runs in his relatively brief MLB career.
On Tuesday, he did something he’s never done at the MLB level — hit three home runs in a single game. Soto torched White Sox pitching with home runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings to account for each of the four Yankees runs batted in a 4-1 Yankees win.
White Sox starter Jonathan Cannon got the best of Soto in Soto’s first at-bat. Soto grounded out on the second pitch, and the White Sox got out of the inning unscathed.
Things took a dramatic turn in the third. Cannon left a 94 mph sinker hanging over the heart of the plate, and Soto made him pay. Soto launched the ball off the end of his bat for an opposite-field home run that carried into the bullpen beyond the left-field wall to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Cannon remained on the mound to start the fifth inning. This time, Soto led off and worked the count in his favor to 3-1. Cannon’s fifth pitch of the at-bat was a cutter that caught the outside of the plate. Soto went opposite-field again, this time sending the ball into the left-center field bleachers.
By Soto’s fourth at-bat, Cannon was done. This time, Soto faced White Sox reliever Fraser Ellard with a 3-0 Yankees lead secured by his previous two plate appearances.
Ellard didn’t fare any better. Ellard worked Soto to a full count on five pitches. His sixth was a 95 mph fastball that stayed high and on the inside corner. Soto turned on it and launched the ball into the right-field stands for his third home run of the game.
The solo shot extended New York’s lead to 4-0.
Soto ended his night with a five-pitch walk in his final at-bat in the ninth. But he went hard for home run No. 4 on a 3-0 count.
Soto finished the night 3 of 4 at the plate with three home runs, three runs scored, four RBI and one walk.
After a season-plus of relatively muted production with the San Diego Padres, Juan Soto is back to form in New York among the upper-echelon of baseball’s most potent hitters. He entered Tuesday slashing .302/.431/.586 with 30 home runs and 82 RBI in 116 games.
Now he’s added three more home runs while batting ahead of Aaron Judge as half of the most dangerous tandem in baseball.
