It’s unknown how long Juan Soto will be a Yankee, but while he’s here, he’s certainly making Yankee Stadium his home.
While Hal Steinbrenner has made it known he wants to keep Soto, the price of keeping him alongside Aaron Judge continues to rise, as the pair of sluggers went deep two innings apart — and Soto homered twice — in the Yankees’ 7-3 win over the Mariners at the Stadium on Wednesday.
Juan Soto celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 7-3 win over the Mariners
The victory allowed the Yankees to avoid their first three-game losing streak since April 14-16.
After Judge’s first-inning homer, Soto added two more later in the game, as he continues to soak up the adoration of the fans.
He even heard chants of “MVP” more than once over the course of the game.
“I still think it’s way too early,” Soto said of the fans already crowning him with the award. “It’s fun to see those fans go at it every day. It’s unbelievable. I’ve just got to turn around and they go crazy.”
The home runs — and his clear obvious connection with the fans — certainly help.
“I’m enjoying every part of it,” Soto said. “I’m having fun with it. You never know how long it’s gonna be like that.”
Aaron Judge congratulates Juan Soto on his two-run homer in the third inning of the Yankees’ victory
Judge knows the other side of that, since some fans turned on him in the postseason after his record-setting home run year in 2022. For now, though, Judge said the love-fest with Soto “gives me chills.”
Judge got the Yankees on the board in the bottom of the first with his 14th home run of the year — his seventh in the first inning.
This one was an opposite-field, two-run shot to right to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead after Anthony Volpe led off the inning with an infield hit to extend his career-high hitting streak to 15 games.
Nestor Cortes, delivering a pitch in the first inning, threw five scoreless innings in the Yankees’ win
With the homer, 10 of Judge’s last 12 hits have gone for extra bases, including four home runs.
Soto followed in the third, as he came up after Volpe singled for the second time on the night.
Like Judge, Soto took the ball the other way, as it went out to left-center to make it 4-0.
Soto added another opposite-field homer to left to start the bottom of the sixth for a 5-0 lead, his 13th blast of the season.
Soto added to the show in the top of the seventh, as the fans serenaded the right fielder with another “Juan Soto” chant during a visit to the mound and Soto waved his arms in encouragement.
With a chance to put the finishing touch on Wednesday’s win, Soto came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh, again, with the crowd on its feet.
But this time, Soto struck out.
The homers by Judge and Soto all came off right-hander Bryce Miller, who allowed just five base runners over six innings, but they all scored.
And the top four hitters in the Yankee lineup went 6-for-14 with four home runs.
“He’s one of the best hitters in the game,” Judge said of Soto. “You add that to a lineup, things are gonna change.”
To top it off on Wednesday, Nestor Cortes dazzled at home again, tossing five shutout innings, as the Yankee rotation continued to excel.
But the typically excellent bullpen briefly faltered in the eighth, as Michael Tonkin walked two batters in his second inning of work and Luke Weaver then allowed a three-run homer to Cal Raleigh to cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-3 with one out in the eighth.
Alex Verdugo gave the Yankees some cushion again in the bottom of the inning with the team’s fourth homer of the night, a two-run shot into the bleachers in right-center. The 420-foot shot made it 7-3.
