Juan Soto will be hitting cleanup and playing left field Wednesday night against the New York Mets. It's a simple, yet long time coming, phrase.
His season debut comes nine games and almost two weeks into the 2020 season. Soto has twice been quarantined under coronavirus protocols -- once for contact tracing reasons and once because of a positive test he thinks was a false positive -- stalling his entrance to a game that mattered.
Tuesday, Soto danced on top of the dugout following Howie Kendrick's home run because he was watching the game from a few rows back in the stands.
Wednesday, he will face Mets right-hander Rick Porcello.
The Nationals were missing one of the league's best offensive players after Soto's positive test result was revealed July 23, hours before the season opener. He came out of quarantine 10 days later, rejoining the team Aug. 1 for weekend workouts. The first priority was to get him at-bats. He did that Saturday. Sunday, he spent six simulated innings in left field. Monday he swung more, Tuesday he worked on everything before watching the game, then Wednesday he was back.
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Soto told Davey Martinez on Monday that he was not yet ready to play Tuesday because his body was sore and legs were heavy. That was in line with Soto's initial projection for his return anyway. He said he was targeting Wednesday, and here he is.
Max Scherzer will pitch against the Mets. The Nationals are 4-4 after winning three consecutive games.
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Juan Soto is back in Nationals lineup originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
