Juan Soto’s hustle out of the batter’s box was once again a topic of controversy on Monday night, as the new Mets star took a moment too long to admire a shot to left field that wound up banging off the Green Monster, keeping Soto at first base with a long single.
Soto did steal second shortly after in what was a 3-1 loss for New York, but coming off a night on Sunday in which he didn’t get out of the box on a grounder up the middle that he seemingly could have beaten out, questions arose about his effort after Monday’s game.
When asked directly if he felt he needed to address his lack of hustle, Soto quickly downplayed it as a non issue.
“No,” Soto said. “I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard. If you saw it today, you could tell.”
Soto told reporters he simply misjudged his opposite field single that hit slightly halfway up the Monster, which prevented him from an extra-base hit when the Mets needed offense.
“I hit it pretty hard,” Soto said. “Tried to get to second, but it wasn’t enough.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza wasn’t so dismissive about Soto’s effort out of the box, telling reporters he would discuss it with his star, just as he did with Mark Vientos when he didn’t bust it out of the box earlier in the season.
“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.”