NY Mets: Loud receptions for Juan Soto, Pete Alonso before home opener
Howie Rose announced the Mets’ starting lineup for their home opener at Citi Field on April 4, 2025, in Flushing.
MINNEAPOLIS — In an early at-bat against the Twins’ Joe Ryan on Monday night, Juan Soto plastered a pitch that narrowly hooked outside the right-field foul pole at Target Field.
It was a warning shot that the gears were turning for the Mets superstar outfielder.
“I was seeing the pitches well,” Soto said. “I was taking my swings on the fastball and taking those changeups and sliders down below. I was seeing everything, so that’s why I felt that good.”
Soto delivered further encouragement in the top of the seventh inning when he pummeled a hanging changeup from Twins right-handed reliever Jorge Alcala over the 23-foot wall in right-center field.
Soto’s second long ball as a member of the Mets — a two-run shot — helped put the finishing touches on a 5-1 victory over the Twins on a cold, damp night in Minnesota. The victory helped the Mets improve to 11-5 on the early season as they won their ninth game in their last 11.
Juan Soto makes his presence felt
The Mets’ overall success is what Soto is most concerned about early in the season.
He downplayed the fact that Monday’s long ball was his first home run since the second game of the season and snapped a 13-game stretch without a home run.
“I’m not trying to hit a homer at all. We’re trying to play team baseball right here,” Soto said. “Whenever I gotta take my walks, I’m gonna take my walks. Definitely we’re trying to have it either way, but I don’t mind. That’s baseball. Things happen. We just got to keep trying out there and try to do our best to help the team.”
It was Soto’s first multi-RBI game since he joined the team, giving him six runs driven in through 16 games. He slashing .250/.400/.420 and making his impact felt as a table-setter ahead of Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Mark Vientos in the lineup.
Soto has walked 14 times and scored 13 runs. In the Mets’ 13 games in April, Soto has only failed to reach base once.
“It’s great, guys on base, it creates traffic and we just want to have as many guys on base, which means there’s more opportunities to score runs,” Pete Alonso said. “Having Juan, Francisco and anybody else who decides to have a good at-bat get on base, it’s great.”
Pete Alonso stays hot, Luisangel Acuña finds his groove
Alonso has gotten on base more than any other Mets player so far this season, boasting a team-best .464 on-base percentage.
The Mets first baseman reached in all four of his appearances on Monday, going 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, an RBI and a run scored. Alonso opened the scoring with an RBI single into left field off Ryan in the third. He also scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the sixth inning, knocking a leadoff single and scoring from first on a double by Mark Vientos to make it 2-1.
The Mets first baseman now has 19 RBI, second-most in the National League and third in Major League Baseball. He’s slashing .345/.464/.673 in the early going.
“I feel great at the plate,” Alonso said. “I just want to be able to continue to execute my game plan and just take quality at-bats one after another and stay in every count.”
Luisangel Acuña added his best offensive game of the season, effectively turning over the lineup from the No. 9 spot.
Acuña scored the first run of the game, drawing a walk and stealing second base before scoring on Alonso’s single. He added an opposite-field double down the right-field line in the fifth inning then laid down a bunt single in the seventh inning, beating an errant throw from Alcala.
The Mets rookie now is now 6-for-14 over his last four games, including two multi-hit games, scoring six times.
“Every time we get contributions for the bottom of the lineup with what’s behind them, it’s important,” Mendoza said. “There’s a lot of different ways that he can help us win baseball games, and he’s doing that.”
Clay Holmes keeps it together for second win
For the early part of his fourth start of the season, it appeared that Clay Holmes would be cruising toward his first quality start since 2018.
On the heels of a 10-strikeout performance against the Marlins, the right-hander continued to get swings and misses against the Twins. He struck out eight batters on Monday, running his season total to 28. It was enough to help Holmes improve to 2-1 and shrink his ERA to 3.66 from 4.30.
“I had the changeup working, I was in competitive, good spots with the sinker. I felt like I was kind of pitching off those two. Luis did a good job calling the pitches and establishing a pretty good rhythm and game-planning going in. It’s just a matter of executing.”
The fifth inning proved to be Holmes’ undoing.
The first three batters reached on a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch, allowing the Twins to even the score on a sacrifice fly. Holmes got out of the inning with a ground ball and his final strikeout but was pulled after the 28-pitch inning drove his count up to 90.
“It was everything, the innings, the elements, the rain, it was all starting to add up,” Holmes said. “Sometimes you try to almost push through it too much when you kind of have to pull back a little bit. I felt so good all day, I felt myself trying to do more when it was kind of getting away there.”
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