Ron Darling calls out Juan Sotos lack of hustle in second straight Mets game: End up being embarrassed
Juan Soto didn’t hustle out of the box for the second straight at-bat, and Ron Darling didn’t let it pass.A night after not sprinting to first while hitting a game-ending double-play ball, the Mets’ $765 million man followed Francisco Lindor’s leadoff home run with a grounder to second base on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.
Anthony Volpe, the converted shortstop still getting used to the position, bobbled the ball, causing Soto to speed up down the line.The Mets designated hitter was still narrowly thrown out at first after Volpe recovered to make the play. Darling fell short of ripping Soto, but didn’t let him off the hook for not running hard right away. “If you’re not going to run, things like that are going to happen,” Darling said on SNY.
“Bobbled.If you don’t run out of the box, then you end up being embarrassed.
DHing today because last night, I don’t know what his physical ailments are; he can’t play left field in this ballpark right now.”Soto appeared to not make a full effort to snare a single to left by Ryan McMahon in the eighth inning Friday night, allowing a run to score and the Yankees to push their lead to 6-3 in a game that ended 6-4.“He had two balls drop in front of him last night.If you do the math, it might have cost the Mets the game,” play-by-play man Gary Cohen added. He went on to note Soto’s injuries to “both calves” this season.
They could be either hampering him or making him less reluctant to run. Soto was on the injured list for two and a half weeks in April with a right calf strain as the Mets went on a season-defining 12-game losing streak in his absence.He then missed 31 more games over July and August with a Grade 2 left calf strain.
Soto returned to the lineup on Aug.29.He seemed to put any questions about his calf to rest when he hustled out a ...