For Juan Soto, the thrill of the hunt captures a pennant for the Yankees

CLEVELAND — The joy of watching Juan Soto is that he shows you how much he loves baseball. He knows precisely how to unleash his greatness, and though he’s eager to display it, he’s willing to wait. He won’t always succeed, because baseball doesn’t work that way. But he seems so determined to savor the pursuit.

The batter’s box is Soto’s happy place, like a hunter’s favorite deer stand. Soto will set you in his sights and take as long as he needs. He’ll bait you into showing your weakness. And as soon as you do, you’re finished.

“Soto don’t swing at balls, man,” said Marcus Stroman, who watched from the visiting bullpen Saturday as Soto caught his biggest prize as a Yankee: the American League pennant. “He’s got the best swing judgment. He’s getting his ‘A’ swing off on anything in the zone. He’s different, man. He’s different.”

Different is what the New York Yankees needed. They believed in their model, but something had to change to reclaim their birthright, a spot in the World Series. They’d missed out every year since their last title, in 2009, spending roughly $3 billion in payroll to lose five times in the American League Championship Series.

Now they have Soto, and now they have won it. His three-run homer in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the ALCS lifted them past the Cleveland Guardians, 5-2, and onto the grandest stage in the game.

JUAN SOTO. THREE-RUN HOMER. @YANKEES LEAD IN THE 10TH! pic.twitter.com/w5goa4pSwz

— MLB (@MLB) October 20, 2024

“That was the mentality since spring training,” Soto said by the Yankees dugout after clutching the final flyout from Lane Thomas to seal the series. “We always talk about: we want the big one, we want to be in the World Series, we want to go all the way.”

Soto sent them on the path by manhandling Cleveland in the ALCS. Giancarlo Stanton was named Most Valuable Player for his four home runs and seven runs batted in, both team highs, all at pivotal points. But Soto hit .368/.478/.895, and owned the finale with a double, single and his third home run.

Each game, the Yankees made Cleveland scramble from the start. The first two hitters in the lineup, Gleyber Torres and Soto, reached base in nine of their 10 plate appearances in the first inning. The Guardians refused to push their starters and trusted heavily in a fatigued, familiar bullpen. The staff was no match for a hitting savant like Soto.

“He is so freaking hard to get out,” said the Yankees’ relief ace, Luke Weaver, who worked two innings to win Game 5. “I’ve faced him plenty of times. It’s relentless. It’s an at-bat that guys just really don’t want. He grinds it out. He stares you down, he shuffles on you. He does all the things that might irritate you and get under your skin.”

Weaver was in the dugout, trying to stay stoic, as he peeked over taller teammates when Soto came to bat with two outs and two on in the 10th. With one hit, Weaver would have a lead to protect and a pennant to clinch. Soto did much better than that.

He took the first pitch from Hunter Gaddis, a slider down and in. Soto stared back at Gaddis and punched his hip with his fist. Then came another slider, a called strike at the bottom of the zone. Soto bent his knees and winced. He wanted the call.

On 1-1, Soto saw a third slider, probably one he should have handled. But he was early on it, barely nicking it for a foul behind the plate. Soto was down in the count now, 1-2, but it sure didn’t feel that way. He shook his head and glared again at Gaddis, who went to a changeup.

Soto fouled that one, too. He nodded. He had Gaddis all lined up.

“The more pitches he sees, the more dangerous he becomes, just downloading the release point, the timing, everything,” Stanton said. “It seemed like he took a few of those balls out of the catcher’s glove.”

Another changeup, another foul, a dribbler by the first-base dugout. More nodding, then a pantomime of a swing with his right arm. Then a hint of a smile.

When Soto smiles like that, he said, it’s because he is seeing every pitch well. His confidence is building, and he’s happy to show that to the pitcher. What was that Muhammad Ali line? I’m a bad man!  That was Soto here.

“I’ll be real: Gaddis, unbelievable change-up, unbelievable pitcher,” said third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. “His change-up is probably the best in the game, next to Devin Williams. To be honest with you, when I saw Soto foul off the change-up, I said, ‘Oh, we’re out of here.’”

Pitch six: back to the slider, knocking at the backdoor, an unwanted visitor. Soto swatted it away. More nodding. He still hadn’t seen a fastball, and Gaddis has a good one.

“I’m just waiting for the mistake,” Soto said. “I’m just telling myself, ‘I’m all over every pitch, I’m all over every pitch, be ready, be ready, he’s going to make a mistake.’”

On the seventh pitch, Soto’s prey wandered into the open: a fastball, letter-high at the top of the strike zone, not shoulder-high, where catcher Bo Naylor had set his target. Soto fired off that ‘A’ swing and sent the pitch soaring to center.

It is high.. It is far… 

“I didn’t know it was going to keep going,” said general manager Brian Cashman, who watched from the suite level. “I thought at first, the way it was tracking, it was like, ‘It’s not gonna get out of here.’ And it just kept going and going, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’”

Turns out OMG isn’t just a Mets thing. Soto smashed the pitch 402 feet, a 95-mph fastball redirected at nearly 110 mph. Soto paused as he romped near the Yankees’ dugout, flexing and roaring as his teammates tumbled over the railing. Pandemonium.

“I blacked out,” shortstop Anthony Volpe said. “I can’t wait to watch the video. We were going crazy on every home run, but that one was special.”

It was something like a Chris Chambliss moment — or, for a more recent shot that sent the Yankees to a World Series, another Aaron Boone blast. Soto’s homer did not end a winner-take-all game, like those did, but it was the Yankees’ first go-ahead, extra-inning homer this late in the postseason since Boone slayed the Boston Red Sox in 2003.

Soto turned five years old the day the Yankees’ next series ended in defeat to the Florida Marlins. It would be six more years before they returned to the World Series, and 15 more until they got there again. Soto booked that trip with his Saturday night special — a prosperous hunt and a personal passion.

“He loves the game of baseball,” said Boone, the Yankees’ manager. “That’s usually a common trait for great players. Not everyone loves it like Juan Soto.”

(Top photo of Juan Soto: Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)