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Juan Soto on mimicking Alex Bregman’s home run celebration: ‘I just thought it was pretty cool, I wanna do it too’

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During a pivotal fifth inning, 21-year-old outfielder Juan Soto sent a moon shot into the right-field stands of Minute Maid Park. The home run gave the Nationals a 3-2 lead. The run would ultimately prove to be the game-winner. As Soto lumbered down the first base line, he carried his bat down down with him before dropping it at his first base coach’s feet. Soto was mimicking Alex Bregman’s home run celebration in the first inning.

Soto explained why he did it in multiple interviews after the game.

Video

Here’s a look at both celebrations.

“It don’t bother me at all,” Soto said in an interview with Tom Verducci on the field. “I just say, if he do it, then I’m gonna do it. I don’t mind it. I don’t care what he do. He can flip the bat wherever he goes. I don’t mind it. Just don’t mind when we do it.”

When Soto spoke with the MLB on Fox panel, which includes former superstars like David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Pedro Martinez, and Frank Thomas, he was more in a joking mood.

“No, I don’t say anything [to my teammates]. I just say it to myself,” Soto said. “I saw that, what Bregman in the first inning, I was like ‘that was pretty cool, I wanna do that’”

Martinez told Soto matter-of-factly, “if you did that to me in my time, you would have been drilled.”

Finally, inside the locker room, Soto stressed that he thought Bregman’s celebration was “pretty cool,” adding “I wanna do it too.”

But Soto’s teammates weren’t as amused. Starter Stephen Strasburg, who won his fifth game in the 2019 postseason, looked annoyed and called the celebration “pretty tired.”

After the game, Bregman apologized multiple times for the play.

“I just let my emotions get the best of me,” Bregman said. “It’s not how I was raised to play the game. I’m sorry for doing that.”

Nationals manager Davey Martinez hated both players doing it.

“We didn’t like it. And the fact that Soto did it, I’ll be quite honest with you, I didn’t like it when he did it as well,” Martinez said during his postgame press conference. “That’s a conversation I’ll have with Juan. That’s not who we are. If he feels like he wants to carry the bat all the way to first base, that’s him. I don’t like when our guys do it. I don’t like celebrations outside the dugout. That’s just not who we are.”

Headline photo: @NBC4Sports

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