Soto to have MRI after early exit in Mets' much-needed outburst

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nobody in the Mets’ sphere ever wanted to hear “Juan Soto” and “MRI”’ in the same breath. Yet that is the reality the team is facing after playing its best all-around game Friday night and swamping the Giants, 10-3, at Oracle Park to end a three-game losing streak.

Soto will get the MRI on Saturday morning after injuring his right calf while running the bases in a two-run first inning. He felt it running from first to third on Bo Bichette’s single after his own single.

After Soto was forced out at home on Brett Baty’s double-play comebacker, manager Carlos Mendoza took no chances with one of his stars and sent Tyrone Taylor to left field for the bottom of the first.

“There’s obviously concern any time you send a player for an MRI, and those areas, the calf area, can be tricky,” Mendoza said. “So we’ve just got to wait.”

Soto, who had left Oracle Park before reporters entered the postgame clubhouse, came out of a 2022 game with Washington after hurting his left calf. He started the next game.

Nobody in the clubhouse wanted to speculate on having to play without Soto, one of the game’s best all-around players and one of the few Mets to start the year hot (11-for-31 with a homer).

“You never want to lose a guy like that,” second baseman Marcus Semien said. “I don’t know how bad it is yet, but I know he works extremely hard, and he’s going to get himself back as soon as possible.”

Semien was one of two Mets hitting standouts as they throttled one of his former teammates, right-hander Tyler Mahle, for five runs in four innings. They continued their merry-go-round of runs against the Giants’ bullpen.

That was more than enough support for starter Nolan McLean. He carried a perfect game into the sixth inning, losing it on a leadoff walk to Harrison Bader and then the no-hitter on Willy Adames’ RBI double. That was the only hit McLean allowed in 5 1/3 innings.

Semien provided a rarity for the Mets this year, a two-out hit with runners in scoring position in the first. They were 4-for-33 in such situations.

Semien also burned Mahle with his first homer of the year, a two-run shot to straightaway center in the fourth.

Two batters later, catcher Francisco Alvarez hit his first homer, then he added a second against JT Brubaker in the seventh inning. He nearly hit a third in the eighth inning, but the ball died in Bader’s glove on the center-field warning track. Alvarez was not confident he nailed No. 3 off the bat.

“This is a big field, so I wasn’t so sure,” he said through translator Alan Suriel.

Alvarez sounded more sure that the Mets would be able to win even without Soto.

“Juan is one of the key pieces to this lineup,” Alvarez said. “I think it’s unfortunate he hurt his calf, and it’s tough to play without him, but I think if guys step up we can be OK.”