Soto's smash caps twin-bill sweep: 'He's great'
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CLEVELAND -- When Juan Soto joined the Yankees in the offseason and moved to the American League, it brought a lot of change.
New city. New ballpark. New teammates. And it guaranteed he would make his first trip to Progressive Field.
After going 0-for-4 with a walk in the opening game of a doubleheader Saturday, Soto added another accomplishment to his MLB résumé with a three-run home run in the second game, which propelled the Yankees to an 8-2 victory and a doubleheader sweep.
The Yankees won the first game, 3-2.
Soto has now played in all 30 active MLB stadiums and homered in 26 of them. (He also homered for the Padres in Mexico City in 2023.)
“He’s great,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s a great, great player. So any time you throw things like that out there at a very young age it’s not surprising. I’m sure it won’t be long until it’s 30 out of 30.”
His home run on Saturday was a classic Soto blast, as it went 408 feet to center field off Triston McKenzie to extend the Yankees’ lead to 6-0. He added two walks, for good measure.
The Yankees scored two runs in the first inning, thanks to game-opening, back-to-back walks from Anthony Volpe and Soto, which led to an RBI single from Anthony Rizzo and a bases-loaded walk to Giancarlo Stanton.
“We had good at-bat after good at-bat and really stuck to the pitches we wanted to hit,” said Aaron Judge, who went 1-for-4 with a walk. “We know [McKenzie] has some nasty stuff. So we just tried to lock into our zone, and we were able to execute that.”
Prior to Soto’s big homer, the Yankees added a run in the fourth on an RBI single from Volpe.
They added on two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI double from Oswaldo Cabrera and a sacrifice fly from Austin Wells.
“Up and down the lineup, guys are putting together great at-bats and working counts,” Judge said.
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Cody Poteet, who was recalled as the 27th man for the doubleheader, allowed one run over six innings to earn his first win since May 23, 2021, when he was a member of the Marlins. He didn’t allow a walk and struck out four.
Not bad for a guy who found out he was getting the big league callup about 24 hours before the game.
“This was priceless,” Poteet said.
Poteet described his internal feelings during the start as a mixture of excitement and nervousness, but he didn’t look nervous on the mound. Poteet got through those six innings with an efficient 77 pitches.
“To go six in the second game of a doubleheader was huge,” Boone said. “I thought he did a great job [mixing his pitches] to get off the barrel. Really strong effort.”
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Poteet had Tommy John surgery on Aug. 9, 2022, while he was with the Marlins. He ended up signing a Minor League contract with the Royals in 2023 and had one scoreless appearance in Triple-A at the end of the year.
His lone blemish Saturday came in the fifth inning, when he gave up a solo home run to former Yankee Estevan Florial. It was Florial’s second career home run.
“I always had the belief in myself that I was a Major League starting pitcher,” Poteet said. “I just went out there tonight and put a good foot forward for the rest of the year. Just thankful for the opportunity.”