Yankees’ Juan Soto reveals reason for savage staredown after moonshot home run

There’s no love lost between New York Yankees star Juan Soto and Baltimore Oriolers right-hander Dean Kremer. Although Soto wouldn’t reveal what’s happened between the two, their beef hit another level on Tuesday night when the Dominican hit a moonshot homer off Kremer, proceeding to do the “Soto Shuffle” while also staring him down.

Following the 4-2 loss, Soto spoke out on his actions after the bomb. Via MLB.com:

“It was part of the game. We were going back and forth,” Soto said. “He didn’t like the shuffle. I bet he didn’t like the homer, too.”

Ruthless from Juan Soto, who finished 2 for 3 with a walk. Despite getting the last laugh in that particular at-bat, however, Kremer carved up the Yankees, tossing seven innings and allowing just two earned runs on four hits. Soto’s homer, which traveled a projected 447 feet per Statcast, was the second-longest bomb on to Eutaw Street in right field in the Statcast era behind only Gunnar Henderson.

Yankees struggling vs Orioles

It’s common knowledge the O’s are the Yanks’ biggest competition in pursuing the American League East title. So far in this four-game set, New York has lost both games, scoring a mere two runs in the process. They lost 2-0 in the series opener before solo homers from Austin Wells and Juan Soto were the primary source of offense on Tuesday at Camden Yards.

The Yankees were hitting some balls hard, but the baseball just wasn’t landing:

“We’re all grinding, we’re all trying to get some runs on the board,” Soto said. “But things aren’t going our way. We hit the ball hard, we hit the ball in the gaps. They’re making great plays and diving all over the place. We’re giving good at-bats with contact, we’re hitting the ball hard. They just haven’t landed for us.”

The Yankees are still 19-12 and will continue to build off the positives, as Soto alluded to:

“We’ve just got to focus on the future and the present right now,” Soto said. “We had a good month and I hope we have another great month. The Orioles have a good team, but we’re going to try our best to win more games.”

Juan Soto playing his part

The blockbuster Soto trade is paying off in a big way. The outfielder continues to rake, slashing .325 in 31 games with a team-leading eight home runs and 25 RBI. He also has a .581 slugging percentage and 1.019 OPS.

With Aaron Judge off to a slow start, Soto’s production has been crucial for this ball club. The former AL MVP is hitting just .207 so far but he’s still went deep six times.

Aaron Boone’s squad is back in action on Wednesday against the O’s before the final game of the series on Thursday. They will turn to Luis Gil in Game 3, while Corbin Burnes counters for Baltimore. It won’t be an easy guy to face, but the Yankees are clearly a confident bunch who are hungry to turn things around here after going just 5-5 in their last 10 contests.