Juan Soto and the New York Mets are still trying to lock up a sure spot in the upcoming 2025 MLB playoffs, as they play the San Diego Padres in an ongoing series at CitiField. New York won the first game of the series on Tuesday, 8-3, but failed to follow up on it with another victory, as the Mets faltered on Wednesday, suffering a 7-4 loss.
However, there is at least one positive individual takeaway for Juan Soto from that contest.
With the Mets trailing San Diego, 6-2, Soto launched a solo home run off Padres left-handed relief pitcher Adrian Morejon to cut New York's deficit down to three. Soto got ahead 3-0 in the count against Morejon before taking back-to-back strikes for a full count. Morejon then tossed a 79 mph curveball to Soto that the latter took deep for a 369-foot dinger.
With that home run, Soto is just a homer away from setting a new career-high in the big leagues.
Juan Soto matches his career high from last season with home run No. 41 🤩 pic.twitter.com/AZHZughMRc
— MLB (@MLB) September 18, 2025
Juan Soto hit a total of 41 home runs with the New York Yankees in the 2024 season, during which he also batted .288/.419/.569 to go with 109 RBIs.
The 26-year-old Dominican outfielder now has 10 more games left to try to hit that personal record-setting home run. He can get that as soon as this Thursday, when the Mets and the Padres play their series finale.
The Padres are expected to give Randy Vasquez the starting duties for that game, which seems to give Soto a favorable situation. Soto is 1-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs in his career against Vasquez, who has also allowed a total of 15 home runs so far in the 2025 MLB season.
Meanwhile, the Mets will start Jonah Tong, who is coming off a brutal outing in an 8-3 loss to the Texas Rangers at home last week.
Wednesday's loss to San Diego drops the Mets to 78-74, which is only 1.5 games in front of their nearest Wild Card threat.