That’s a rare line from Soto. It’s his 20th career three-strikeout game, but just the third time he’s combined that and an 0-for-5. Even worse, one of his non-strikeouts today saw him ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in a scoreless game in the fifth. Soto homered Monday and Tuesday, but those are his only hits in the last five games, and his average has sunk to .231.

Soto’s two-run shot off Jorge Alcala ended a 13-game drought for him. He entered the day in a 1-for-13 slump that had dropped his OPS under .800 to .794.

It didn’t take much time for Soto to make right on his game ending strikeout from opening day. He turned on a 96 MPH cutter from Hunter Brown that was up-and-in on his hands and blasted it nearly 400 ft deep into the right field stands. Regular hitters can’t do things like that. Soto is not a regular hitter, though. It’s only been two games, but he looks comfortable and downright thrilled to be a Met.

Unfortunately, the final at-bat was the memorable one today. Facing Josh Hader with the tying run on base, Soto struck out. He actually got ahead 3-0 in the plate appearance, but then he took a slider right down the middle and swung at ball four twice, with the last of those being a checked swing on a slider way off the plate.