NEW YORK — Juan Soto hopped down the first base line as if he were playing the most painful game of hopscotch imaginable. He collapsed midway between home plate and first base as the New York Yankees’ medical staff and manager Aaron Boone rushed out of the dugout to check on their superstar right fielder. Yankee Stadium fell silent as Soto bit down on his jersey to keep himself from screaming while his right foot was examined.
A few minutes passed before Soto rose from the ground, took two practice swings and showed he was good enough to step back into the box against Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans, who hadn’t allowed a Yankee to reach second base before the sixth inning. Soto said he knew immediately that he didn’t break any bones in his foot, which meant there wasn’t a chance he was going to be removed.
Watching from the top railing of the Yankees’ dugout, third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. knew the stadium was about to erupt when he saw Soto remain in the game.
“The way he was looking around, you could see in his eyes that he was going to do something special,” Chisholm said.
Two pitches later, Soto clobbered a 402-foot no-doubter into the right-field bleachers, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead at the time. Soto held his right foot in the air as he watched the ball sail through the Bronx sky. He turned to the dugout, aggressively flipped his bat, and howled. Perhaps due to the still-lingering pain, Soto’s 39th trot around the bases this year was his second slowest. The only trot that was slower came against the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this season when the Yankees took exception to how slowly José Siri motored around the bases.
“He’s got that theatric thing down pretty good here,” Boone said. “I don’t mean he was being theatrical but, man, he’s down. He smokes (the foul ball) just under the pad, so it’s in a rough spot. I was a little worried he wasn’t gonna be able to finish. In some ways, maybe it locked him in even more in that at-bat.”
For the first five innings, the Yankees’ offense looked like it has on most nights when facing an opposing left-handed pitcher: lifeless. They had just four baserunners before Soto stepped in the box, and it appeared Ragans was going to cruise toward an easy victory for the Royals.
Chisholm acknowledged that, for the past few weeks now, the Yankees haven’t played up to their standards. Aaron Judge is 11-for-53 in his last 15 games with zero home runs. Soto entered Wednesday’s game in an 11-for-52 slump of his own.
“Nobody’s hot right now,” Chisholm said. “Cap’s cooled off a little bit. Soto went into a little rut but this is how you stay together. This is a championship team. This is what we do. We grind it out and we win games, no matter who’s down and who’s up. We’re gonna win games. This is how we do it.”
The Generational. @JuanSoto25_ 🔥 pic.twitter.com/PQeYM5K9ux
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 12, 2024
Soto’s home run flipped the game for the Yankees and provided hope that they’d be able to escape with a series win. Their lead lasted just half an inning, though after Boone opted for Clay Holmes in the top of the seventh.
With Kansas City’s three right-handed hitters at the top of its lineup coming up, Boone thought that was the spot to use the embattled reliever. But ninth-place hitter Kyle Isbel started the inning with a single, leadoff hitter Tommy Pham followed with a single of his own and two batters later, Salvador Perez tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
The game went into extras and into the bottom of the 11th inning after Yankees reliever Luke Weaver pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Weaver has made a case to become the primary option at closer, but the Yankees aren’t ready to make that decision yet.
After Weaver escaped with no damage, the Yankees won, 4-3, on an infield single by Chisholm. The win extended the club’s lead to 1 1/2 games in the American League East, after the Boston Red Sox walked off the Baltimore Orioles earlier just minutes before New York’s win.
The Yankees will now host the Red Sox for a four-game series beginning Thursday night. Chisholm hasn’t played in many intense environments coming from the Miami Marlins, but Wednesday was just a small taste of what awaits him and the rest of his teammates in just a few weeks.
“It felt like a playoff game,” Chisholm said. “Oh, this is sick. It ain’t even October yet. I can’t wait.”
(Photo of Soto celebrating: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
