Though Juan Soto entered Tuesday’s action with 190 career home runs in 895 games, he’d never hit three in a game. The 25-year-old Yankees slugger did so for the first time on Tuesday in a 4-1 Yankees win against the White Sox.
Soto had all four RBI for his team and scored three of the four Yankees runs in the game.
Much of the attention heading into the game was focused on Aaron Judge looking to become the fastest player ever to 300 career home runs. Instead, Soto kind of stole the thunder from his fellow All-Star outfielder while Judge will wait for No. 300.
Soto’s first homer:
And then the second:
Now, after that second one, Soto wasn’t in new territory. Not even close. This was his 23rd career two-homer game. It’s the sixth time he did so this season. He had five two-homer games last year, so he has now set a new career high in multi-home run games. It hasn’t been too long since he went deep twice in the same game, either, as he just did so on Sunday.
Still, the third blast made this a career night for Soto.
For those curious, Soto has seven career playoff homers, but he hasn’t hit more than one in a game there.
Soto came up in the ninth with a chance to become the 17th player ever to hit four homers in a game, but he drew a walk. He didn’t get a pitch in the strike zone all the plate appearance, swinging with all his might on a 3-0 slider that was well outside — causing Soto to noticeably laugh after the effort.
These three blasts Tuesday night give Soto 33 homers on the season. His career high was set last year with 35. Given that the Yankees have 41 games left, it’s a pretty safe bet Soto is going to establish a new career high this season. He’s a good bet to get to 40, in fact. Judge is already over 40.
The only sets of Yankees teammates to reach 40 homers in the same season, ever, have been Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (three times) and Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle (1961, of course).
By way of reminder, Soto is set to hit free agency after this season.
