Last Night In Baseball: Juan Soto Went All Out In Mets’ W

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: The Mets have been a disaster at times in 2026, but there is still a reason to hope: the team has been plagued by injuries, and, despite basically everything suffering the worst-case scenario all the time, New York is still just five games back of a wild-card spot. Catcher Francisco Alvarez is already back. Star shortstop Francisco Lindor begins a rehab assignment on Friday and could be back by next week. And star left fielder Juan Soto, who was one of the first to go down with an injury and derail the season, has been back for some time and holding things down. On Thursday, against the NL East-rival Phillies, Soto had himself a game. In the top of the first against starter Aaron Nola, Soto took an 87 mph changeup and deposited it 386 feet in the other direction to open up the scoring. Soto came up against Nola again in the third inning, and the result was the same. This time, it was a 92 mph sinker that ended up middle-middle, and didn’t sink nearly enough to fool Soto. This one came off the bat at 105 mph, and went 389 feet to right-center to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. While Soto didn’t contribute much else on offense besides a walk — don’t take that the wrong way, 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBIs and two homers with a walk is a great day — he did provide some assistance with the glove, too. This is a sliding catch in the most technical sense, in that Soto didn’t slide to make the catch, but did so afterward in order to avoid running into a wall and dropping the ball and/or injuring himself. The game-winning hit for the Mets ended up coming later on, as the Phillies tied the game (and would then score a fourth run too late), when second baseman Marcus Semien tripled in Mark Vientos and rookie outfielder Carson Benge to make it 6-3 and give the Mets all the runs they would need for a W. The White Sox were able to avoid being swept by the Yankees on Thursday and stick atop the AL Central in a tie with the Guardians, and pulled that off in dramatic fashion. But hey, be patient. The first run of the game came on a notable home run: infielder Colson Montgomery is now up to 20 home runs on the season after smacking one in the second inning off of Yankees’ starter Ryan Weathers. Montgomery, who debuted last season for the White Sox, has now played in 141 big-league games, and has hit .235/.318/.523 with 41 home runs and 100 RBIs in that stretch. That’s a pretty great rookie “season,” and part of why this year’s White Sox are in much better shape than last year’s, which dug quite the hole to climb out of in the first half before a much more promising second that included players like Montgomery on the roster. There was only one other run in the game until late, scored when Yankees’ third baseman Ryan McMahon tied things up with a dinger of his own in the third. Sean Burke, who entered in relief in the second, threw 7 ⅓ innings and was otherwise stellar beyond that homer to McMahon. Which all led to a dramatic eighth inning in which the White Sox started off with a pinch-hit double by Sam Antonacci, saw another pinch-hitter, Jacob Gonzalez, get hit with a pitch, and then No. 9 hitter and center fielder Tristan Peters was also hit by a pitch. Second baseman Chase Meidroth would strike out swinging against new pitcher Camilo Duval, but that was delaying the inevitable. The White Sox called in another pinch-hitter, Andrew Benintendi, and Duval threw just one pitch to him: a 99.8 mph sinker that barely sank, down and in, that Benintendi drilled 393 feet for a grand slam. The Yankees would have no response to this in either the eighth or the ninth, as Burke continued to shut them down post-McMahon homer. Chicago’s pinch-hitter-filled eighth resulted in the team’s 39th win of the year: it took the White Sox until July 29 to reach 39 wins last season. England’s national team is based in Kansas City for the World Cup, which means England’s national team made an appearance at the Royals’ game on Thursday. Team manager Thomas Tuchel even threw out the first pitch. Even if England’s team wasn’t hanging out in Kansas City, this pairing would make a ton of sense. England is in the United Kingdom, a country with a monarchy. These are the Kansas City Royals. They don’t have a king, but they do have a lion mascot wearing a crown. Or whose head is actually in the shape of a crown in place of the top of his mane. Sluggerrr, your existence creates more questions than it answers. Anyway, the governing body of English football, The Football Association, uses lions in its coat of arms, since that symbol has historic context for England. See? This all just makes sense. It was a big day for the Royals overall, not just because of their esteemed guests. For one, 15-year veteran Salvador Perez hit a home run, and it was the 137th that he has hit at Kauffman Stadium. That moved him out of a tie with legendary Royals’ third baseman and Hall of Famer George Brett, making Perez the franchise leader in homers at Kauffman. Perez has hit 313 dingers in his career, the majority of them on the road — Kauffman hasn’t been the friendliest park for power hitters over the course of his 15 years playing in it. But Perez got there, anyway. The rest of the Royals’ bats showed up, too. Kansas City ended up scoring six runs in the second inning against the Cardinals, knocking starter Matthew Liberatore out of the game before he could record six outs. The bullpen didn’t fare much better, at least at first, with Gordon Graceffo allowing four runs to make it 11 for Kansas City before the game even hit the halfway point. Kansas City would pick up the win, 14-6, and with the Tigers having lost two in a row and out of action on Thursday, the Royals moved into a tie for fourth place in the AL Central. Despite being 31-45, Kansas City is somehow just 6.5 games back of a wild-card spot. The Mariners bounced back from striking out a dozen times against Kyle Bradish to pick up a win against the Orioles on Thursday. This one was decided early, in the sense that the only runs scored in the entire game came in the bottom of the first inning. Second baseman Cole Young hit an RBI double to open up the scoring… …and then shortstop Colt Emerson singled to right to score right fielder Dominic Canzone as well as Young. From there, it was all pitching for both teams. Shane Baz ended up settling in for the Orioles, finishing with seven innings, nine strikeouts, two walks, five hits and those three earned runs, but he was outdueled by Bryan Woo. The 26-year-old right-hander also went seven innings, but he scattered three hits and a walk with the help of nine strikeouts of his own, and walked off to a standing ovation thanks to holding Baltimore scoreless. The bullpen finished the job, and the Mariners improved to 39-37, keeping 1.5 games up on the Athletics in the AL West. It was a bright and sunny day in Seattle, and that nearly spelled disaster for center fielder Victor Robles and left fielder Miles Mastrobuoni. Not just because this ball hit to center was very nearly not caught, but because the two almost collided since neither of them could see what was going on. Robles did call for the ball, too, but Mastrobuoni must not have heard him and kept coming. Thankfully, the catch was not only made, but there was no disaster collision, either, and we instead just got a neat slow-motion replay of their arms kind of wrapping around each other and somehow not interfering with the play. The Red Sox are 17-18 on the road, but now 12-25 at home after losing yet again at Fenway Park on Thursday. Boston was taking on the Blue Jays and trying to avoid a sweep and its fourth-straight loss at home, but failed on both of those counts. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who for whatever reason has not been hitting for power this year, managed to go yard to start things off for the Blue Jays. To heal whatever ails you, play in Fenway (offer does not apply to Red Sox players). Boston did tie things up in the eighth inning, however, thanks to first baseman Willson Contreras driving in a run on a ground out in the seventh, which was followed by shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa hitting a homer the next inning and third baseman Caleb Durbin making it back-to-back jacks. It was not to be for the Sox, however. In the top of the ninth, while facing closer Aroldis Chapman — in the midst of an excellent season — catcher Brandon Valenzuela doubled to drive in second baseman Ernie Clement, giving the Jays back the lead, 4-3. The Sox did not score in the bottom of the ninth, which, again. They are 12-25 at home, so that was expected. The Blue Jays are now one game under .500 after a poor start to the year, while the Red Sox have hit a milestone low point: per the Boston Globe, no team has ever made the postseason after a 29-43 start to the year, and Boston’s 1-for-29 performance with runners in scoring position this series was a franchise-worst. How’d the first inning against the Angels go for the A’s? Let’s take a closer look. The top of the inning saw Los Angeles go down in order, and the bottom of the first featured this sequence: It took all of that happening before the Angels recorded an out. The very next batter pushed another run across, however, as center fielder Henry Bolte managed a sac fly. The A’s would bat around, with Gelof walking in his second trip to the plate, and Kurtz ending the inning with a fly out. This was yet another game where every run was scored in the bottom of the first! Ryan Johnson ended up staying in the game and pitching four scoreless innings after his awful first inning, and A’s starter Gage Jump went threw seven scoreless while allowing a single hit and three walks against seven strikeouts. The A’s needed this W, too, as the Mariners won, keeping the gap between the two in the AL West at 1.5 games. The Angels did have this going for them, at least. This is a stunning play by third baseman Denzer Guzman, not just for trapping that ball, but the spin afterward to get in position to throw, and the throw itself. Guzman also had two walks on the day — not bad, considering how much the A’s stifled the Angels’ offense on Thursday.