Padres News: Juan Soto Dominates Former Friars' Pitcher, Stellar Win

Another homecoming for our superstar!

Should Juan Soto remain a member of the San Diego Padres long-term, it will be very interesting every time that he faces off against his former team in the Washington Nationals. It was well-documented that he no longer wanted to play for them last season and SD wasted no time in making a blockbuster move for him.

Well Soto put up quite the performances in the Padres' first match against them on Tuesday night as they came out on top 7-4 and the 24-year-old slugger was able to garner three hits in his four plate appearances.

Most notably, he along with Xander Bogaerts were able to take MacKenzie Gore deep. Gore was San Diego's top pitching prospect before he was dealt away in the same trade and entered the game with a chip on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, that did not work out too well for him.

Juan Soto homered. @JuanSoto25_ | #BringTheGold pic.twitter.com/c0IZSP0ws2

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 24, 2023

Xander Bogaerts oppo shot!

pic.twitter.com/oO83lbPcLU

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 23, 2023

Soto was in the midst of one of his best stretches leading up to this series and we knew that he would come in very emotional due to spending majority of his career in Washington, but also wanting to come out on top.

He spoke on what it meant to him to be playing in front of their home crowd and compared it to when he did so in 2022 right after the deal went down.

“It was a little different,” said Soto. “Definitely last year was a little bit more emotional. This year was emotional. But it was more like happy. I feel more happy instead of being sad about being traded.”

(Via The San Diego-Union Tribune)

The Padres have now had two of their highest-scoring games in the past month back to back. We hope that this can indeed be the start of a new groove and with Juan Soto leading the way, maybe it will serve as inspiration to the rest of our stars.