MLB
Soto hits second straight home run in Mets' loss to Minnesota
The New York Mets lost to the Minnesota Twins 6-3.
Soto up to bat against the Minnesota Twins.
(AFP) Questioned for his sluggish start to the season, Dominican Juan Soto hit another home run for the second straight game Tuesday for the New York Mets, who nevertheless lost 6-3 to the Minnesota Twins.
Soto, the big signing of the year in Major League Baseball, has three home runs in his first 17 games in a Mets uniform.
It matches the total he had with the New York Yankees during the same period last season, before he finished with 41 home runs — the fourth-highest in the league.
The Dominican, who signed with the Mets for 15 years in exchange for $765 million, said Monday that his game suffered from not having Aaron Judge, last season's best hitter, with whom he formed an explosive combo that helped lead the Yankees back to the World Series.
On Tuesday, the Santo Domingo native hit a home run for the second straight game with a 107-yard blast to right field at Target Field in Minneapolis.
The 26-year-old Soto's homer snapped a tentative 2-2 tie, but the Twins, unlike in Monday's loss, reacted immediately to hand the Mets their sixth loss in their first 17 games.
The New York Yankees, in turn, beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 in another highlight game of a day in which Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day.
As is tradition, the players of all the teams wore the number 42 as a tribute to Robinson, the first African-American baseball player to be accepted in the competition 78 years ago.
In Tampa, Mexicans Jonathan Aranda and Jarren Durán also hit homers in the Boston Red Sox 7-4 win over the Rays.
Boston got revenge for the humiliating 16-1 loss it suffered on Monday.
Mexican-American Durán hit a home run in the second inning that put Boston ahead 3-0.
Aranda responded in the bottom of the same inning but the Red Sox sealed the win with two home runs, five hits and four runs batted in by American Alex Bregman.
In Toronto, the Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 with a three-run home run by Venezuelan Anthony Santander in the fifth inning.
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