Shortly after the game, Soto said he plans to return to the lineup on Saturday, when the Mets resume their three-game series at Citizens Bank Park. The teams are off on Friday.
About halfway through Thursday’s game, Soto said he began to feel cramping in his calf. With a three-run lead midway through the eighth, the Mets replaced him in left with Tyrone Taylor, who wound up striking out in the ninth with a man in scoring position.
“We think he’s going to be fine,” interim manager Andy Green said. “Just given that he played the All-Star Game, came through a lot of activity the last few days, it made sense just to get him off his feet. I think our expectation is he’s playing this weekend. … We were in a spot where he could have kept going. It just didn’t make sense.”
The soreness was in Soto’s left calf, not the right one that he strained in April. That injury cost him two and a half weeks.
Soto returned from it no worse for wear, batting .290 with 21 home runs and a .967 OPS prior to the break. He then played four innings in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, going 1-for-2 with a single, before opening the second half in the same ballpark. He was the Mets’ lone All-Star representative.