Mets' Juan Soto his go-ahead homer vs. Cardinals to salvage series

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Jun 11, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Pitching sure is at a premium for the Mets at the moment.

Christian Scott was good, but far from great Thursday afternoon against the St. Louis Cardinals. But the right-hander didn’t last long enough, forcing the bullpen to cover a lot of ground after the Mets came back to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth. A massive shot by Juan Soto off left-hander Jojo Romero (0-2) in the seventh gave the Mets back the lead for good, preventing a sweep with a 5-4 win.

With two outs and the game tied at 4-all, Soto took a 1-2 sweeper over the center-field fence for a go-ahead home run, his 14th of the season. While pitching might be tough for the Mets right now, home runs were certainly not at a premium on a hot, muggy afternoon at Citi Field.

The ball was flying Thursday, as it tends to do in Flushing when the weather heats up. The ballpark can play completely differently in the summer months than in the early part of the season when the temperatures are low.

After Scott gave up a homer to Alec Burleson in the first inning, Bo Bichette took right-hander Hunter Dobbins deep to put the Mets (30-38) ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first, and Jared Young made it 3-1 with his fourth of the season.

But Scott gave up two more long balls in the the top of the seventh, and the Mets went from up two to down one, 4-3.

Young tied it at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth. After Dobbins retired Bichette for the first out, then St. Louis (37-29) went to left-hander Justin Bruhil to face Juan Soto. The slugger doubled to center field, then came home on an RBI single by Young.

The Mets took seven hits off Dobbins and three runs, striking out five times.

Scott lasted only 4 2/3 innings, giving up four earned runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out six. The Mets haven’t received very many innings from their three starting pitchers in recent weeks, and they’ve looked to the bullpen for openers in front of struggling lefties David Peterson and Sean Manaea. But the bullpen is what’s giving the Mets a chance to climb back into the wild-card race.

Left-hander A.J. Minter went 1 1/3 scoreless innings, followed by a scoreless inning each from left-hander Brooks Raley (2-1) and right-hander Luke Weaver, setting up closer Devin Williams. When the Mets have the back end of the bullpen available, it typically sets up nicely for them. Williams, a St. Louis native, converted the save (eight).

It doesn’t get any easier from here for the Mets. They’ll welcome the Atlanta Braves for a crucial NL East series starting Friday, with Nolan McLean lined up to start the first game. Saturday’s starter is anyone’s guess, and will likely require another opener, but the Mets can may only be able to use one if everything lines up for them right in the series opener.