Juan Soto finally is coming back to the New York Mets on Wednesday.
The Mets can only hope he brings their offense with him.
Soto will look to give the sinking Mets a much-needed jolt Wednesday, when he is expected to be activated from the injured list before New York hosts the Minnesota Twins in the middle contest of a three-game interleague series.
Right-hander Clay Holmes (2-2, 1.96 ERA) is slated to pitch for the Mets against left-hander Connor Prielipp, who will be recalled from Triple-A St. Paul to make his big league debut.
The Mets’ losing streak hit 12 games following a 5-3 setback on Tuesday. Luke Keaschall had the game-tying RBI single in the seventh inning and the go-ahead RBI single in the ninth.
The losing streak is the longest for the Mets since a 12-game skid from Aug. 10-23, 2002. New York hasn’t dropped at least 13 straight since a 15-game losing streak from Aug. 15-31, 1982.
The Mets have scored just 22 runs during the losing streak — or five fewer runs than they scored in the first three-plus games without Soto, who strained his right calf running the bases in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants on April 3. The outfielder was placed on the 10-day injured list three days later.
Soto scored the first run of a 10-3 win before exiting. The Mets won their next three games by a combined margin of 18-5 before embarking upon the sixth-longest losing streak in franchise history.
Soto is batting .355 with a .928 OPS in 31 at-bats. The only Mets regular with a .250 average is Francisco Alvarez, who is hitting exactly .250. Alvarez (.824 OPS) and Luis Robert Jr. (.700 OPS) are the only everyday players with an OPS of .700 or better.
“I didn’t think we were going to have this hard a time scoring runs without him,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday night. “It’s hard to put a lot on Soto. But it’s going to be good to have him in the lineup tomorrow.”
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Twins, who squandered leads in three of the defeats.
Offense was at a premium early Tuesday for the Twins, who fell behind when New York’s Francisco Lindor hit a three-run homer in the third and didn’t have a baserunner in the first five innings against Mets rookie right-hander Nolan McLean.
But Matt Wallner opened the sixth with a single for the Twins, who collected five hits — including Byron Buxton’s two-run homer in the sixth and Keaschall’s first RBI hit — in their final 10 at-bats against McLean before he exited with two outs in the seventh. Minnesota forced McLean to throw 36 pitches in the sixth and seventh after he threw just 63 pitches while recording the first 15 outs.
Three relievers closed out the game with four perfect innings for Minnesota, whose bullpen gave up 11 runs (eight earned) over 13 2/3 innings during the losing streak.
“We just kept battling, kept battling,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “That’s a heck of a win.”
Holmes took the loss in his most recent start April 15, when he gave up two runs over five innings as the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-2. He is 3-1 with a 1.76 ERA and three saves in 10 career games (one start) against the Twins.
Prielipp, whom the Twins selected in the second round of the 2022 draft, earned the promotion by going 1-0 with a 2.30 ERA and 22 strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings in four games (three starts) at St. Paul.
The 25-year-old is the Twins’ top pitching prospect per MLB Pipeline, and No. 94 overall per Baseball America.
–Field Level Media
