Mets' Juan Soto achieves career first amid hot start to June

While the thin air of playing in Denver certainly helps, Soto has been red hot since the calendar flipped from May to June. In that span of eight games, Soto is hitting .346 (9-for-26) with two home runs, four RBI, 12 walks, and an absurd 1.179 OPS.

Soto's historic day made him just the third New York baseball player ever to record three singles, three runs scored and three walks in a single game, which is an incredible accomplishment considering the lengthy history of star players to take the stage representing a New York team. Soto is clearly feeling more comfortable at the plate and seeing hard hit balls finally dropping for hits is a big boost for his confidence.

The Mets have raced to the best record in the National League without many contributions from Soto, who has shown flashes of dominance but largely underwhelmed over the first two months of the year. If Soto can sustain his strong start to June for a prolonged period, his overall stats could end up much closer to his career norms before long.

The incredibly underrated aspect of Soto's performance is that even the "bad" version of Soto has generated 2.5 Wins Above Replacement (Baseball Reference) for the Mets, which is more than most average players can do over a full season. Seeing Soto get going would be a massive lift for the Mets, who have a key stretch of their schedule approaching with 13 of their next 16 games coming against National League East rivals.