Juan Soto is 5-for-18 with a home run and five walks against Seth Lugo in his career, that total the most hits any Yankee has against the former Met – and there’s a reason for that.
“You just have to be ready for the mistakes. We all know he has like nine pitches, so try to focus and don't miss whenever he's going to make mistakes,” Soto said before ALDS Game 3. “At the end of the day, he's going to try to be here and there, but he's going to make mistakes, and you have to capitalize on that.”
Soto is not giving hyperbole, as Lugo legitimately will throw nine different types of pitches in a game; you can quibble that maybe a slurve vs. a slider vs. a sweeper vs. a curve is two variants of two pitches, or it’s a few different types of fastballs, but the point is, you literally never know what he’s gonna throw at you.
“It's kind of tricky because you never know what's going to be working that day,” Soto said of Lugo. “I just prepare myself to be ready and be able to attack, try to see what he's done to me in the past and then go from there. But you've got to go with his best pitch; I feel if you're ready for the fastball, he won't be able to beat you with anything else unless you go out of the strike zone. I think that's got to be the plan with a guy who has that many pitches: just sit on the fastball, hit the hardest pitch, and then adjust to anything else.”
“Baseball is a game of execution. Hitters are trying to be disciplined to a plan or something they're looking for, and generally speaking, you're hitting off the fastball with Seth. He's going to give you a few different looks with the fastball – sink it, four-seam, cut it – and you’re hunting a particular area,” added manager Aaron Boone. “Hopefully the handful of pitches you get opportunities to do damage, you make hay with. That's ultimately what it comes down to. Pitchers, when they execute, usually have a lot of success, but the mistakes that pop up, you've got to be able to take advantage of.
If the Yankees are to win Game 3 and go into Thursday’s Game 4 in clinch mode instead of defensive mode, well, they’ll have to do better than they did last time, when Lugo threw seven innings of three-hit shutout ball and struck out 10 Yankees on Sept. 10 in the Bronx.
Lugo threw just one splitter and two sweepers in that outing, so maybe narrow it to seven, but the point remains: you can’t be ready for everything, so be ready for anything.
Reiterated Soto: “Just gotta focus on one pitch and try to do damage.”