{"id":599802,"date":"2026-04-22T15:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599802\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:29:11","slug":"the-opener-soto-kurtz-ohtani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599802\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opener: Soto, Kurtz, Ohtani"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Mets\u2019 losing streak grew to a dozen last night. The club will be getting some reinforcements for Wednesday\u2019s matchup.<\/p>\n<p>1. Soto set to return<\/p>\n<p>Outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sotoju01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Juan Soto<\/a> is expected back tonight against the Twins. He\u2019s missed a little under three weeks while nursing a calf injury. The four-time All-Star left early against the Giants on April 3. New York won that game and the next three contests with Soto out of the lineup. The team has since lost 12 straight games. Getting Soto\u2019s bat back in the mix should be a boost. He had a .928 OPS through eight games before the injury. After last night\u2019s 5-3 loss, the Mets have scored three runs or fewer 10 times during the losing streak.<\/p>\n<p>2. Kurtz nearing A\u2019s record<\/p>\n<p>First baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kurtzni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Kurtz<\/a> led off last night\u2019s matchup against the Mariners by working a walk against right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=castilu02,castilu01,castil018lui,castilu03,castil026lui,castil025lui,castil007lui&amp;search=Luis+Castillo&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Luis Castillo<\/a>. It was his 12th consecutive game with a free pass, moving him into a tie with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/henderi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rickey Henderson<\/a> for fifth-most in franchise history (h\/t <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SlangsOnSports\/status\/2046808447123877899?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sarah Langs of MLB.com<\/a>). The A\u2019s record is a three-way tie at 15 straight games with a walk by Henderson, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bishoma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Max Bishop<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hartsto01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Topsy Hartsel<\/a>. Kurtz will have a tough task on Wednesday, facing right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilbelo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Logan Gilbert<\/a> and his 4.3% walk rate.<\/p>\n<p>3. Two-way Ohtani returns?<\/p>\n<p>Right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohtansh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a> will be on the mound tonight against the Giants. It remains to be seen if he\u2019ll be in the hitting lineup. The two-way star did not hit in his last start. Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rushida01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dalton Rushing<\/a> served as the DH and slugged a home run. It was the first time as a Dodger that Ohtani pitched but wasn\u2019t in the batting lineup. Manager Dave Roberts said a HBP earlier in the week led to the decision. LA\u2019s lineup will be an interesting one to monitor on Wednesday, especially with Rushing off to a tremendous start.<\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets\u2019 losing streak grew to a dozen last night. The club will be getting some reinforcements for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[7842,30929,3956,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-599802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-juan-soto","9":"tag-nick-kurtz","10":"tag-shohei-ohtani","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}