Soto exits early due to injury and will undergo MRI; Mets halt losing streak with big win over Giants.

Today at Oracle Park in San Francisco, the New York Mets delivered their most complete performance of the new season, defeating the Giants 10-3 to end a three-game losing streak. However, the team soon faced a concerning update: Juan Soto will undergo an MRI examination.

Soto injured his right calf while running the bases during a two-run rally in the first inning. After hitting a single himself, he felt discomfort while advancing from first to third on Bo Bichette’s single. Soto was tagged out at home when Brett Baty grounded into a pitcher’s double play. Manager Carlos Mendoza did not risk keeping him in, replacing Soto with Tyrone Taylor in the bottom of the first inning.

“Any situation that requires sending a player for an MRI is worrisome, and the calf area is tricky,” Mendoza said. “We just have to wait.”

Soto previously exited early due to a left calf injury while playing for the Nationals in 2022, but he returned to play the next day. This time, he had already left Oracle Park before reporters entered the postgame locker room.

No one in the locker room wanted to speculate on how the team would handle Soto’s absence. Soto is one of the league’s most complete players and has been one of the few Mets hot at the start of the season (11 hits in 31 at-bats, including one home run).

“You never want to lose a player like that,” said second baseman Marcus Semien. “I don’t yet know how serious the injury is, but I know he trains extremely hard and will recover as quickly as possible.”

Semien was one of two Mets hitters who stood out in this game. They scored five runs against right-handed starter Tyler Mahle over four innings, then continued to add runs against the Giants’ bullpen.

This provided ample offensive support for starter Nolan McLean. He carried a perfect game into the sixth inning, losing perfection after walking Harrison Bader, and then Willy Adames’ double broke up the no-hit bid. That was the only hit McLean allowed over 5.1 innings.

Semien delivered a rare two-out hit in a scoring opportunity for the Mets this year (the team had only 4 hits in 33 such at-bats previously), accomplishing it in the first inning. In the fourth, Semien launched his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to center field.

Two batters later, catcher Francisco Alvarez hit his first homer of the year, then added another against JT Brubaker in the seventh inning. He nearly hit a third in the eighth, but the ball was caught in the warning track in center field by Bader. Alvarez wasn’t sure if that ball would have cleared the wall.

“This stadium is big, so I wasn’t certain,” he said via translator Alan Suriel.

What Alvarez was more certain about was that the Mets could win even without Soto.

“Juan is a crucial piece of the lineup,” Alvarez said. “It’s unfortunate he hurt his calf; playing without him will be tough, but if everyone steps up, we’ll be fine.”