Mets Juan Soto makes franchise history with latest homer: Really impressive

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.Juan Soto has reached some rarefied statistical air in his first season with the Mets. The $765 million slugger became the first player in team history to compile at least 40 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a single season with his solo blast in the seventh inning Saturday, but the feat became more of a footnote as the Mets bullpen flushed another late lead for their eighth straight loss, 3-2 to the Rangers at Citi Field. “It’s great.

… It’s really impressive,” Soto said, “but we have bigger things out there in front of us that we have to go out there and get it.” Howard Johnson had managed 41 steals along with 36 home runs for the Mets in 1989, but no one ever had accomplished the feat with at least 40 homers. Soto, who has a career best with 32 steals, also became just the fifth player in franchise history to go deep 40 times.He joined teammate Pete Alonso (three times), Todd Hundley, Carlos Beltran and Mike Piazza. It marks the 16th time in baseball history a player has totaled at least 40 homers and 30 steals in one season — a group that includes Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Shohei Ohtani. “For me, it means a lot,” Soto said earlier this week when asked about the possibility.

“It’s part of the journey of your career.But at the end, you’ve just got to think about the team.

If you accomplish that, what we’re trying to do here is just help the team as much as I can.” Soto’s 40th, a solo blast to right off Texas lefty Hoby Milner in the seventh extended the Mets lead to 2-0.But the Rangers came back to even the score with two runs against Tyler Rogers and Edwin Díaz in the eighth before adding the go-ahead run against Díaz one inning later to extend the Mets losing streak. The 26-year-old Soto registered a career-high 41 home runs in his lone season with the Yankees in ...