A foul pitch off his right leg didn’t stop Washington Nationals phenom Juan Soto from crushing a 443-foot home run.
Soto fouled a 1-0 pitch off his right leg in the sixth inning. He went down quickly in apparent pain. Nationals manager Davey Martinez and athletic trainer Paul Lessard visited Soto shortly afterwards.
Soto remained in the game and two pitches later in the same at-bat, he crushed a 91-mph fastball into deep right center for his 17th home run of the season.
The 20-year old’s blasts extended the Nationals’ lead to 3-1 over the Baltimore Orioles.
Soto has emerged as one of the Nationals’ top players since breaking through the majors last season. After finishing as a runner-up in the National League Rookie of the Year in 2018, he has surged in his second season in Washington.
Soto is displaying all the tools — 17 home runs, 60 RBIs, and a .301 batting average (entering Tuesday’s game) — that allowed the team to feel comfortable departing from Bryce Harper, who signed on with Philadelphia in free agency this past Spring.
Juan Soto showed great resilience to stay in the game after what appeared to be a painful shot to his leg, and then crush a home run.
