Mets' Juan Soto exits in sixth inning of loss to Dodgers with lingering calf issue, will receive imaging
Mets' Juan Soto walks against the Lost Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Mets interim manager Andy Green said before Friday night’s 4-2 loss to the Dodgers that he hoped he didn’t have to talk about Juan Soto’s calf again.
Then he had to talk about it again.
Soto exited the game with left calf soreness and is expected to undergo imaging on Saturday. He was due to lead off the sixth in a 1-1 ballgame at Citi Field, but Jorge Polanco pinch hit for him.
“He just had a reoccurrence of symptoms in the left calf,” Green said. “We certainly hoped we were behind it and done talking about this, but he felt it pushing off going to second base there when he was on the bases . . . This has nagged him for a week now. I know it’s frustrating for him, frustrating for us and everybody.”
Green added that any time imaging is required, there is concern about a possible stint on the injured list.
Calf problems have been a recurring issue for Soto, who was the designated hitter Friday. He had a day off Wednesday to “get the calf thing completely behind him,” Green said then, after he exited with left calf soreness in the eighth inning of the Mets’ game in Philadelphia on July 16.
He missed nearly three weeks in April with a right calf strain.
Kyle Tucker’s two-out, two-run homer off A.J. Minter in the eighth extended Los Angeles’ lead to 4-1. Francisco Alvarez’s homer in the bottom of the eighth cut it to 4-2, but Evan Phillips retired the Mets in order in the ninth.
Luis Robert Jr. hit a solo homer in the second.
Sean Manaea allowed a run and and six hits in six innings, his third quality start of the season.
Rightfielder Carson Benge showed off his arm with two assists, including a 100-mph bullet to home in the sixth to get Freddie Freeman for an inning-ending 9-2 double play. He became the first Mets rookie since Juan Lagares (June 8, 2013) to record two outfield assists in the same game.
“It kind of fires me up,” Benge said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do on the field is throw someone out. Especially at home, that makes it even better. But all I was thinking was just throw it as hard as I can and near the plate.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
