Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Marcus Stroman had a lot of fun at Juan Soto's expense, striking him out and stealing his celebration.
Cubs starting pitcher went six strong against the San Diego Padres on Sunday in an eventual 7-1 victory. Stroman has been excellent so far this season, and could be trade bait should Chicago not want to roll the dice on his player option following this season.
Stroman lowered his ERA to 2.39 with his three-hit, six-strikeout performance on Sunday. While San Diego has had its struggles, this is still a lineup that features Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts when healthy, among others. The Padres are an All-Star team, though they are not playing like it.
After striking out Soto in the bottom of the fifth, Stroman had some fun at his expense, stealing his 'Soto Shuffle' celebration that has inspired bobbleheads and more.
Cubs: Marcus Stroman meant no disrespect in trolling Juan Soto
Stroman, an advocate for making baseball fun again, meant no disrespect by his celebration. He was merely caught up in the moment, as he explained after the game.
"Soto is incredible, man. Everyone sees how I've talked about Soto on social media before. I think he's gonna go down as one the best players to ever play this game. He's an incredibly tough at-bat. He really doesn't swing at anything outside the zone. So, it's always a game, know what I mean," the Cubs starter said, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. "That first inning, he was kind of nodding at me after the walk, so I just put it in my back pocket just in case I punched him out later in the game. And I just so happened to. But that's not easy to do."
Stroman got his revenge and then some. More importantly, Chicago won the game.
