Juan Soto stresses sense of urgency for New York Mets

Juan Soto knows that the Mets have very little room for error.

Sep 17, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto (22) hits a home run during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

After winning two straight, the New York Mets suffered another frustrating loss.

New York dropped the second game of their three-game series against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday, 7-4, with Manny Machado's grand slam in the fifth inning off David Peterson proving to be the big blow of the game. At 78-74, the Mets still hold a 1.5 game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League, as well as a two-game lead over the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds.

While the Mets are still seen as the most likely team to clinch that final Wild Card spot, Juan Soto expressed a sense of urgency for the Amazins' with just 10 games to go in the regular season.

"We've got to get going today; we cannot wait for tomorrow," Soto said. "Tomorrow's going to be too late, we've got to get going today, right now."

"We've got to get going today, we cannot wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be too late"

Juan Soto on the sense of urgency the Mets feel right now: pic.twitter.com/XCgYz1vasB

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 18, 2025

It's been a frustrating three months for the Mets. After holding the best record in baseball at 45-24 on June 13 and leading the NL East by 5.5 games, New York is now trying to hold off a team behind them in the Diamondbacks, who opted to sell at the trade deadline. Since that hot start to their season, the Mets are 33-50 and have lost seven straight games or more three separate times.

Read More: David Stearns opens up about trade deadline decisions amid Mets late-season slide

Soto, however, has done his part for the Mets this season. After hitting his 41st home run last night, the superstar outfielder is now just one home run from setting a new career-high in long balls and just one RBI away from having 100 runs batted in for the third straight year and the fourth time in his eight seasons in the major leagues.

An absolute ROCKET 🚀@JuanSoto25_ | #LGM pic.twitter.com/KBvX7D1wQv

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 18, 2025

With just nine games to go after Thursday's matinee against San Diego, the Mets cannot afford to have a late-season collapse, especially after coming within two games of the World Series last year. The aforementioned Soto was thought to be the missing piece in delivering a championship back to Queens after signing to a record-setting contract last offseason.

And what has been a common theme throughout these last several weeks of the regular season, New York will turn to one of their young starting pitchers, Jonah Tong, to get this team back on the winning track. The right-hander turned in his worst start of his young career, lasting just 0.2 innings against the Texas Rangers on Friday, allowing six earned runs on four hits with three walks.