SOTO PREPARED FOR ‘EMOTIONAL’ RETURN TO WASHINGTON
Juan Soto was 19 years old when he debuted with the Nationals in 2018. He slugged 34 homers the next year for a World Series winner. He won a batting title as a 21-year-old in 2020, led the majors in walks the next year and last week packed his bags for San Diego, the end of an emotional two weeks in which he was forced to contemplate life outside the organization that signed him as a 16-year-old in 2015.
On Friday, Soto will again step foot in Nationals Park, just 10 days after the historic trade to the Padres.
“Going back to Washington is going to be pretty emotional,” Soto said after going 2-for-5 with a run scored in the Padres’ 13-7 win over the Giants on Wednesday. “… It’s been pretty tough, but I was prepared for this. I knew we were going back, so I’m more than happy to go back.”
Soto wasn’t the only Padre flying Wednesday night into familiar territory. Like Soto, Josh Bell realized early that he’d be making a return trip to Washington, so soon, in fact, that his wife decided to stay back with their 7month-old daughter after seeing the Padres’ return trip on the calendar.
Needless to say, the offday today won’t be all rest for Bell.
“I’m sure I’m going to have a lot of things to take care of when I get home,” Bell said. “Being in a hotel here (in San Diego) is definitely different knowing that I’m going to sleep in my own bed when I go back home. It’s going to be weird. But when we get back, we’re going to move out and get a place and have a more solidified home base.
“This will change here in the upcoming weeks.”
Bell was traded to Washington two years after the Nationals’ World Series run, but saw plenty of admiration for Soto during his two years there.
He pointed toward Nats’ fans reception for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in their first games there after their trades to Los Angeles last summer as a barometer of what to expect when Soto is introduced Friday.
“I’m sure it will be pretty big,” Bell said. “I know Trea got a big response. Max did as well. I’m pumped to see what they have worked for him.”
Soto is hopeful to say the least. It was home, after all.
“I’ve done everything for that team,” Soto said. “Whatever I did it was thinking of that team and the fans and stuff like that. If they appreciate it, I will be more than glad.”
Not this time
If Brandon Drury had better luck, he’d be sitting on four homers in his first eight games with the Padres. After hitting a grand slam on the first pitch he saw Aug. 3, he was robbed of home runs by tremendous catches at the wall Aug. 4 and Tuesday night.
He gave Giants left fielder Joc Pederson no chance to deny him in Wednesday’s decisive sixth inning, depositing a slider several rows beyond the wall on a 109-mph line for a go-ahead three-run homer.
“It felt good,” Drury said. “More importantly, just to help the team win and come up with big hits is what I love the most, so it felt really
good.”
The blast was Drury’s 22nd of this breakout season that began with receiving just two minor league offers after the lockout lifted. He’d been something of a platoon bat against lefties in recent years, but is hitting a respectable .255/.329/.460 against righties this year while continuing to hammer southpaws (.294/.328/.624).
Wednesday’s homer (off Yunior Marte) was his second off a righty with the Padres and 13th this season.
“When I was in Oakland … he did some damage against us,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s more targeted in the past to hit left-handed pitching and now he’s hitting right-handed pitching really well, too, and doing damage off it. So this is probably as good of work as he’s done in his career and maybe the most involved he’s been every day in a lineup.”
Notable
C Austin Nola caught LHP Sean Manaea (5 IP, 3 ER) for the first time Wednesday as Jorge Alfaro remains day-to-day after exiting Monday’s game with right knee inflammation. Alfaro is expected to be “good to go,” Melvin said, beginning Friday in Washington.
For the second day in a row, rainy conditions in Frisco, Texas, forced the Padres to scrap plans for Fernando Tatis Jr. to see time in center field on his rehab assignment with Double-A San Antonio. Tatis, however, remained in the lineup at shortstop and hit leadoff. He was 0-for-2 with a strikeout and was hit by a pitch.
LHP Drew Pomeranz (flexor tendon) said he felt good a day after striking out a batter and allowing a run on two hits in an inning of work at low Single-A Lake Elsinore. Pomeranz will pitch for the Storm at least one more time before advancing to higher levels.
jeff.sanders@sduniontribune.com