NATS DING COLE
UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT AS SOTO & CO. BEAT UP ASTROS ACE TO TAKE GAME 1
HOUSTON — He preens, he prances, he dances, he dekes. An at-bat by Juan Soto mixes performance art and the art of hittiting. His confidence is only surmmounted by his skill, all of which is made just a touch harder to belilieve by his youth. “He can’t even drink legally until Friday,” Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long said. Soto was born three days after ththe Yankees completed their 125wwin season in 1998. That makes his 221st birthday Friday, which will coinincide with the first World Series ggame in the natition’s capital since OOct. 7, 1933. The NNationals will arririve there having nno less than stolen ththe home-field advantage from the Astros in the 115th FFall Classic because Soto was again pprecocious, proficient and productitive. The youth plus the talent plus the confidence is such a rare trifecta that Nationals vice president of internationational operations Johnny DiPuglia likened it to “a dog playing checkers.” DiPuglia signed Soto for $1.5 million at age 16 and four years later Soto was the third youngest player to ever hit cleanup in a World Series, joining Miguel Cabrera and Ty Cobb. The World came to see Max Scherzer versus Gerrit Cole and departed having watched the young Cabrera reborn as a lefty. Cabrera is one of just three players younger than Soto to homer in a World Series game. The others are Mickey Mantle and Andruw Jones. You get these lists that Soto joined Tuesday, right? Cobb, Mantle, Cabrera … “Mr. [Ted] Lerner asked me, ‘When are you going to give me another Soto?’ ” DiPuglia said of the Nationals owner. “I told him you get that every 50 years.” The team that used to be the Expos won its first World Series game in franchise history because Soto hit a solo homer and a two-run double off Cole. That was three runs driven in against an ace who had permitted just two in his previous five starts covering 34 2/3 innings and three postseason games. His offensive exploits fueled a 5-4 triumph in the World Series opener and this question for every Mets managerial candidate: What’s scarier about the potential job, working for the Wilpons or 19 games annually versus Soto?
Soto is 16 months younger than Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, the expected AL Rookie of the Year, and nearly four years younger than Pete Alonso, who is going to win the NL award. Yet, he has Joey Votto’s feel for the strike zone and Lady Gaga’s stage show. Soto will shimmy and strut between pitches, stick out his tongue, wag his head, make an exaggerated movement toward the mound after most pitches, on occasion grab his crotch. He will acknowledge a good pitcher’s pitch with a “you-got-me-thistime” nod. Such is the self-belief that Soto has that he will get the pitcher next time.
“The first time I saw him, I thought that was the best swing I’ve ever seen,” Long said. “He was 19.”
Long, among others, coached Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez. But he believed in the swing path so much that he predicted the day before the opener Soto could get on top of a Cole fastball and homer, which has been a holy grail this season.
The Astros had not lost when Cole started since the first game after the AllStar break, and he had not lost since May 22, a period in which he established himself as the best pitcher in the game. But DiPuglia said, “Maybe [Soto] thinks he is better than the best guy in the world.”
Soto struck out in his first at-bat, unable to catch up with 99 mph after nearly a week off since Washington won the NL pennant. In his second at-bat, he made a seer of Long. Cole went up with heat and Soto deposited it on the train tracks above the big wall, Crawford Boxes and advertising signs 417 feet away in left to tie the score 2-2 in the fourth. With first base open in the fifth, Cole never considered a fastball, throwing six off-speed pitches, the last a slider that Soto slashed off the left-field wall for a two-run double.
“He could slow his pulse down,” DiPuglia said. “That was a hostile crowd. If I was 20 years old, I would have been [expletive] down my leg.”
Added Long, “You know his age, but he is pretty much better than everyone.”
Soto overshadowed the touted starting pitcher matchup Tuesday night, taking the World stage and preening and prancing and swinging his way into history.