“We’re looking at inches,” Carlos Mendoza said.
That’s how close Juan Soto came to tying Wednesday’s game against the Padres.
After Francisco Alvarez lifted an opposite-field homer to make it a one-run ballgame, the Mets' slugger stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with a man on and one out, facing San Diego’s All-Star reliever Mason Miller.
Soto had already gone deep once in the ballgame, tying his career-high with 41 blasts.
After battling to a 2-2 count against the hard-throwing right-hander, the sweet-swinging lefty laced a 102.6 mph fastball for a long fly ball deep down into the left field corner that sent the Citi Field crowd into a frenzy.
It came oh so close to being a game-tying two-run blast and Soto’s signature Mets moment down the stretch in the playoff push, but upon further review, the ball dropped in just shy of the foul pole.
“I knew it had enough power behind it to go out,” Soto said. “I just didn’t how long it was going to stay fair, it was fair most of the time and then at the end it just hooked a little more — it was just a long strike.”
Miller would get the best of Soto one pitch later, freezing him with a nasty slider on the corner.
The 26-year-old found himself with an opportunity for redemption a few innings later, though, as Brett Baty led off the ninth with a single and Francisco Lindor drew a two-out walk to again bring him to the plate as the tying run.
Soto was in another 2-2 count when he laced a 100.5 mph comebacker back up the middle at San Diego closer Robert Suarez, which he was able to glove down before throwing to first to end the ballgame.
Just like that, the Mets’ lead for the third wild card spot is back down to 1.5 games over the Diamondbacks and 2.0 over the Reds and Giants with 10 games to play.
“We just have to try to be a little bit more consistent,” Soto said. “We still have a playoff spot, so we’re definitely still in this, but we have to get going today because tomorrow is going to be too late; we have to get going right now.”
