'A fun day': Yankees' Juan Soto displays unbelievable skill in sudden power surge

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NEW YORK — Pat Roessler's eyes lit up. It was early April, and the New York Yankees' assistant hitting coach had been asked what stood out most about star slugger Juan Soto. Roessler and Soto have been close since 2020, when Roessler joined the coaching staff of the Washington Nationals.

"He has an unbelievable ability to take something he's working on, make an adjustment and take it right into the game against major-league pitching," Roessler said. "Not a lot of guys can do that and compete."

That ability was on display Saturday afternoon.

Soto snapped out of a deep funk at the plate to blast two solo home runs and finish 4-for-4 with a walk in the Yankees' breezy 6-1 win over the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium.

How Soto did it was how he always seems to do it — quickly.

Over the past week, Soto dug into his stats and video and consulted with Roessler, Yankees hitting coach James Rowson and assistant Casey Dykes. Then on Friday, approximately five hours before the Yankees' 4-2 win over the White Sox, Soto was the only player on the field for early batting practice.

With Roessler throwing from behind a screen and with Rowson leaning against the batting cage, Soto went to work, making small mechanical tweaks on the swing that helped him to a torrid start in his first year in pinstripes. Through Soto's first 38 games, he hit .338 with nine homers, 33 RBIs and a 1.023 OPS.

But before Saturday, he had been mired in a slump, going just 4-for-31 (.129) over his previous eight games.

The results were explosive. Both homers were of the no-doubt ilk. In the first inning, Soto tore into a 3-1, middle-middle changeup and it landed deep into the seats in right-center field. In the fifth, Soto cranked another shot on a first-pitch fastball nearly into the second deck in right field. He also had an RBI single in the second inning, a walk to load the bases in the sixth and another single in the eighth.

"It was a fun day," Soto said.

Juan Soto Answers Back 🗣️💣#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/v4F87ZLCgQ

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 18, 2024

The explosion came two days after Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told the YES Network's Jack Curry that he would be willing to have midseason contract extension talks with Soto and his agent, Scott Boras. Soto will be a free agent after the season and could command one of the richest deals in MLB history.

The Yankees also received a whopping 14 strikeouts from rookie Luis Gil. The right-hander at one point struck out nine out of 10 batters he faced. Gil, who walked one and gave up five hits, went six innings to improve to 5-1 and drop his ERA to 2.39.

Giancarlo Stanton also continued his hot stretch with a solo homer in the third inning and a double. Stanton has hit safely in 11 of his past 12 games and is hitting .333 over that span. Jose Trevino added a solo homer in the second inning and has three homers in his past four games since May 12.

The victory pushed the Yankees to 32-15, putting them two games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the American League East. The O's lost 4-3 to the Seattle Mariners on Saturday. The lowly White Sox fell to 14-32.

"It's a really confident group right now and it's really good to see, and they're doing it in all ways," manager Aaron Boone said, "getting the starting pitching we need, getting big performances out of the bullpen and obviously Clay (Holmes) anchoring that in the back, and the offense here the last couple of weeks really getting it rolling. Fun to watch them right now."

Boone bristled a little at the idea Soto had been in a downturn offensively.

"Yeah," Boone said, "he didn't get hits for a couple of days."

Boone did, however, say he thought Soto was on the verge of a breakout Friday night when he went 1-for-4, hitting two balls (double, flyout) at 108.2 mph. Boone said Soto's "body language" signaled to him that his confidence was back. Boone added that he knew Soto had been working to fix his swing, but that whatever changes he made were "little finite adjustments" and "nothing noticeable."

Soto declined to give details on his changes but admitted he needed the work.

"Trying to find that feeling again where I was hitting the ball in the first month," Soto said. "Getting that feeling back and get that confidence back up."

He added that, for him, fixing his swing is "not going to happen overnight." Except, apparently, it was pretty close to just one night, with Soto hitting the cage with Roessler, making adjustments and having almost immediate success.

Was his confidence back after bashing two bombs? He smiled knowingly at the question.

"I think so."

(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)