Juan Soto makes the difference for the Yankees after their recent one-man offensive show

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Juan Soto was virtually a one-man show for the Yankees on Saturday, with his solo shot off Yoshinobu Yamamoto being the Dodgers starter's only hit.

His ninth-inning single sparked the only surge produced by the Yankees' modest offense in a 4-2 loss in Game 2 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.

“It's a tough start, but it's not over yet,” Soto said of the 2-0 deficit.

Soto has been just as good in the postseason as he was during his excellent regular season in the Bronx, but so far it hasn't been enough for the Yankees in this World Series.

He got two outs early in the third and sent a 105 mph screamer over the right field wall to tie the game 1-1.

Soto leaned toward the Yankees' dugout on the first base side before circling the bases, and the Yankees appeared to be back in the game.

Carlos Rodon and the rest of the nonexistent Yankees lineup made sure that didn't happen, so Soto's final home run in October was wasted.

When asked why he was the only Yankee who had an answer for Yamamoto, Soto pointed to his first inning at-bat when he grounded out to short on a 3-2 pitch.

“He showed me everything he could do in the first attack,” Soto said. “I was ready for anything. He made a mistake and I didn’t miss it.”

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He also led off the top of the ninth with a single off the wall just off Blake Treinen and scored on Giancarlo Stanton's one-out single.

With Soto headed to free agency, there's no guarantee he'll ever play another game for the Yankees once this World Series is over. And his price tag, already sky-high early in this series, will only increase after this playoff appearance.

For most of this postseason, Soto, Stanton and Gleyber Torres carried the offense while Aaron Judge and the bottom half of the lineup performed poorly.

Soto, who turned 26 on Friday, hit a home run in three of the Yankees' last four games, including Cleveland's huge three-run blast in the 10th inning of the decisive Game 5 win that sent the Yankees to the World Series led.

Since then, the Yankees have scored a total of five runs, and Soto has scored three of them.

Of his four home runs this postseason, three gave the Yankees the lead and one tied the game. Soto is only the third Yankees player to do so, joining Stanton – who also did it in these playoffs – and Bernie Williams, who did it in 1996.

Soto is 14-for-41 (.341) with two doubles, nine walks and seven strikeouts this postseason.

However, if the Yankees aren't careful, Soto's performance will be remembered as just a disappointing series.