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Try it freeFans at Citi Field already were growing restless over Juan Soto’s early season slump, but many in the home crowd stood and cheered the $765 million man as he strode to the plate with a runner on third base and the Mets trailing by one run in the fifth inning Friday night.
Those cheers grew louder when the skidding Soto ripped an 0-1 changeup to right field for a game-tying RBI single against St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas in an eventual 5-4 win over the Cardinals on Francisco Lindor’s walk-off homer in the ninth.
“The crowd is embracing Soto, and I love that they’re embracing him because he’s gonna be with us for a very long time,” said Lindor, who similarly struggled to open his Mets tenure in 2021. “He’s a fantastic teammate and a fantastic player.
“So I know at any point, he’s gonna make something happen. Every at-bat for him, it feels like he’s in every at-bat. And to see him come through like that, you kind of expect it because he’s that good. … I’m happy that the fans are embracing him and showing him love because he deserves it.”
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The run-scoring single and a subsequent walk in the seventh came on the heels of a 2-for-24 skid, including two grounders to first base in his first two trips.
The slide dropped Soto’s batting average to .214 with just three home runs, albeit two in the previous four games.
It also followed a controversy from earlier this week after the former Yankees slugger told The Post’s Mike Puma that he has been pitched to differently this season without Aaron Judge batting behind him.
Soto was not made available after Friday’s game, but he’d said after going 0-for-3 with a walk in the previous night’s win over the Cards that he “definitely knows how to handle” a slump.
“I’ve been growing as a man through my whole career, and I just know things are gonna change. I just gotta keep grinding,” Soto said Thursday.
The 26-year-old outfielder finished third in AL MVP voting last year with 41 home runs and a .989 OPS in his first season in The Bronx, with teammate Judge copping the award for the second time in three seasons.
But the four-time All-Star spurned the Yankees to jump to the crosstown Mets on a whopping 15-year deal via free agency.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza wants the Flushing faithful to continue to be patient and supportive.
“That’s who we are, and that’s who the Mets fans are,” Mendoza said. “They’re always going to be behind their players. We feel it, and the other teams feel it. And I’m pretty sure Juan felt it, and it was good for him to come through. He’s a really good player, and it was good to see.
“We’ve seen it here with other players, especially when they’re struggling. You can feel that reaction from the fans, in this case with a standing ovation. We saw that last year with Lindor, and he took off after that. I’m not saying that’s gonna be the case all the time, but it’s good to have that type of support.”
