Soto's much-needed clutch swing backs 'big boy's performance' from Peterson

NEW YORK -- For the last 10 days, baseball enthusiasts wondered what was wrong with outfielder Juan Soto. After signing a 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets last winter, Soto was expected to be the big man on the team.

Entering Saturday, Soto had largely struggled in his first season as the highest paid player in MLB history. It was more than just the mediocre stats he was putting up -- a .236/.369/.418 slash line through his first 50 games.

His swag disappeared. Where was the Soto shuffle when he was in the batter’s box? That was commonplace when he was with Nationals, Padres and Yankees. Even worse, hustling didn’t seem to be part of his game. Don’t get us started on the alleged home run he thought he hit at Fenway Park during the beginning of the week.

However, some of that swag came back on Saturday night at Citi Field. His off-the-wall double proved to be the difference in a 5-2 victory over the Dodgers.

New York was down, 2-1, to right-hander Tony Gonsolin when it took the lead in the bottom of the fourth. With the bases juiced, Luis Torrens scored the tying run on an infield single by Starling Marte. With the bases still loaded, Soto swung at a 2-2 pitch and missed a grand slam by inches, but Brett Baty and Francisco Lindor scored on the play before Marte was thrown out to end the inning.

“It’s always great to take the lead for the team after a tough loss last night,” Soto said. “We tried to bounce back and we did it the best way. … When I hit it, I was like, ‘Don’t catch it.’ I didn’t think it was going that far. When I hit the ball, I didn’t know it was going that far.”

Like he has done in the last 10 days, manager Carlos Mendoza defended Soto.

“It was good to finally get the results. It’s not necessarily the approach, but getting the results we wanted,” Mendoza said. “He’s too good of a player. I know the player. I know the way he goes about his business. I know how he handles adversity. Look, there is a big-time track record there. For us to worry about him? Not really. He is too good. We know sooner rather than later, the results are going to be there because he keeps hitting the ball hard. Yeah, it’s Juan Soto.”

Despite the slow start, Dodgers manager Dave Robers still considers Soto an elite hitter.

“I don’t think he’s swinging great right now, and [he] found a way to get a couple knocks tonight,” Roberts said. “But you can see him bearing down a little bit more when guys are on base, and I think when you can’t take care of the bottom half of the order and you start bleeding into Lindor and Soto and Marte swinging well, things like that are gonna happen.”

Left-hander David Peterson benefited from Soto’s heroics, pitching his longest outing by a Mets starter -- 7 2/3 innings -- while allowing two runs on five hits and two walks and striking out seven batters. Peterson gave the Mets an outing that was desperately needed after Mendoza used his entire bullpen in that 7-5 loss to Los Angeles on Friday that lasted 13 innings and over four hours, not counting a 98-minute rain delay.

“[Peterson] knew the assignment, and that’s a big boy's performance right there,” Mendoza said. “For him to go back out for the eighth and keep the game there and give us a chance to win a baseball game was pretty impressive. The way he used all of his pitches -- I thought the sinker was really good. … He had ground balls when he needed to.”

Maybe most impressive was that Peterson struck out Shohei Ohtani three times. Maybe Mendoza said it best: “He made Ohtani look human. Ohtani is a pretty impressive player. Before that last at-bat, I was going over potential scenarios with Gibby [bench coach John Gibbons]. Edwin Díaz was ready to go. It was not only a big-time performance on Ohtani, but overall.”

Peterson wasn’t about to tell the media how he was able to hold Ohtani hitless in four at-bats, but he said, “[Torrens] and I [were on] the same page. Everything I was thinking, he was thinking. It was really fun. We had that non-verbal line of communication. ... It was good to get the win.”