Juan Soto homers again and Edwin Diaz earns a six-out save in Mets' win over Royals
New York Mets' Juan Soto watches his two-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Saturday, July 12, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Baseball is a team sport, yes, but so much of it is built on individual performance: a starter’s gem, a slugger’s towering home run, a reliever’s one big mistake. But while Saturday certainly contained moments of individual excellence, the Mets’ 3-1 win over the Royals was mostly a testament to their cohesion.
Frankie Montas, in his fourth start back from injury, threw five innings of one-run ball, Juan Soto hit a two-run homer, Tyrone Taylor made two game-changing catches in center, Reed Garrett pitched a gritty inning in relief, Luis Torrens threw out a pivotal baserunner in the eighth, and Edwin Diaz emptied the tank to earn a six-out save.
Even the behind-the-scenes folks got in on the action: That caught stealing was originally called safe, and all the replays on the giant screen at Kauffman Stadium appeared to agree. But the Mets replay analyst thought otherwise, and though Carlos Mendoza didn’t see it, the manager’s judgment proved pivotal, too — he eschewed his own eyes, trusted the information he received and threw down the challenge.
“We have a lot of talent,” Soto said. “That’s one of the things no one can take from us. I think we have really good talent here.”
They’re also getting healthier. Kodai Senga returned from the injured list Friday and Sean Manaea is set to make his return Sunday. Then there’s Montas, who missed most of the first half, and drew some concerns after a number of rocky rehab outings.
Performances such as Saturday’s, though, are beginning to show that those concerns were overblown. The righty, who realized he was tipping his pitches in his first two starts with the Mets, stymied the Royals, effectively using his superior splitter against a lefty-heavy lineup. The pitch has looked sharp for two straight games, though Montas was victim to some bad breaks against the Yankees last weekend.
This time, his line reflected his performance: he allowed one run and four hits with no walks and five strikeouts in five innings plus. At one point, he retired 15 of 16 batters.
“I’m trying to be at least a little better each start,” Montas said. “It’s good, especially when you’ve been hurt, to go out there in your last one before the All-Star break and put up a good performance like that.”
The Mets opened the scoring in the fourth on a pair of milestones. Francisco Lindor led off the inning with a single off reliever Jonathan Bowan, and took second for his 200th career stolen base. Then Soto, who was DH’ing after taking a foul ball off the shin Friday, proved he was more than all right, launching Bowan’s full-count sider 435 feet to right to put the Mets up 2-0. It was Soto’s 23rd homer of the year, which matches a career high in the first half, a feat he also accomplished with the Yankees last year. It was also his second homer in five innings, going back to Friday night.
The Royals finally cracked Montas when Kyle Isbel led off the sixth with a double to center and came home on Jonathan India’s double to left, cutting the lead to 2-1 and ending Montas’ day.
Reed Garrett, though, took Montas off the hook (but not without incident). Garrett tried to pick off India, but his throw went wide of Brett Baty, moving the tying run to third. But Bobby Witt Jr. popped out to second, Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out to first, and Maikel Garcia flied out to right to end the threat.
The Royals nearly took the lead in the seventh, though. Chris Devenski issued a leadoff walk to Salvador Perez and then left a cutter over the middle of the plate to Jac Caglianone, who blasted it 406 feet to dead center. Taylor, though, made a tough catch near the warning track on a ball that had an expected batting average of .700 and would have been a homer in 20 MLB ballparks.
Diaz came in to pitch in the eighth and walked Witt with one out; Witt attempted to steal second, and looked to be safe, but a challenge showed that Lindor kept the tag on him as Witt bounced off the bag.
“Huge one there,” Mendoza said. “I thought we were just taking a chance when [bench coach John Gibbons] told me to challenge it, and then I asked Gibby to call back, and [analyst] Harrison [Friedland] was pretty sure he came off the bag. That was a big play.”
Jeff McNeil stroked a two-out RBI single in the ninth for an insurance run, and Taylor made a sliding catch on Garcia’s sinking liner for the first out of the ninth.
“Our defense was great,” Diaz said. “In the eighth, Torrens asked me for up and away and I knew we were trying to throw the guy out. He made a really good throw. Lindor made a really good tag on him. It was a big play. As soon as they overturned it, I know I’d get through that inning clean and then [I could] just concentrate on getting the last three outs . . . Today was a really good game.”
A really complete one, too.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
