Soto tied his career high of six RBIs that he accomplished Sept. 17, 2023, for the Padres in Oakland. He happened to connect for his only other grand slam among 237 career homers in that game, when he added a two-run homer.
Tigers starter Charlie Morton had been wiggling out of trouble by getting the Mets to chase his low and generally out-of-the-zone curveballs.
However, Morton couldn’t have picked a worse time or batter to finally hang Uncle Charlie. Soto was down in the count, 1-2, with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning. Morton had gotten him to go down swinging on a low curve with two on and two out in the second.
But this curve, coming right down the middle, did nothing. Soto treated it like a ball on a batting tee, lofting it high and deep into the bleachers beyond the high wall in right-center a Statcast-projected 419 feet away at 108 mph. Soto stood and admired his 36th homer of the season briefly before flicking his bat vigorously, end over end.
That slam gave the Mets a 6-3 lead, but starter Sean Manaea allowed two runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to one. Left-handed reliever Gregory Soto yielded the tying run in the fifth, but Soto gave the Mets the lead for good with his triple in the sixth.
