Mets' Juan Soto leaves victory over Giants with calf tightness

SAN FRANCISCO — The Mets had so many reasons to feel good (for a change) about Friday night’s 10-3 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park.

Nolan McLean’s brush with greatness for five perfect innings. Francisco Alvarez going deep twice with a pair of spectacular bombs. The wobbly Marcus Semien breaking out with a three-RBI performance, including a two-run homer. Bo Bichette collecting three more hits.

Now buckle up for the bad news. The Mets’ brief joy over snapping a three-game losing streak was significantly dimmed by Juan Soto's departure in the first inning with what the team described as “right calf tightness.”

Soto appeared to injure himself rounding second and heading to third on Bichette’s RBI single, but he wasn’t removed from the game until Tyrone Taylor replaced him in leftfield when the Giants came to bat in the bottom half.

Soto wasn’t available after the game and there is no immediate timetable for the $765 million slugger’s return. He’s scheduled for an MRI on Saturday, and based on the team’s initial reaction, he might be on the shelf for a bit.

“There’s obviously a concern every time you send a player for an MRI,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “The calf area could be tricky. We just got to wait.”

McLean, who struggled with his command in last Sunday’s debut, looked more like last year’s dominant version in helping the Mets work past Soto’s shocking absence — at least for a few hours Friday night. He leaned on his cutter to bail him out of numerous deep counts, the byproduct of his arsenal being inconsistent overall.

The closest the Giants came to a hit through five innings was Harrison Bader’s hard grounder to third to open the third. Bichette made a nifty sliding stop.

McLean’s magic faded quickly in the sixth with two walks on a total of 11 pitches. One flyout later, Willy Adames finished him with an RBI double that hopped over the centerfield wall. McLean was done after 93 pitches and Brooks Raley cleaned up, whiffing Rafael Devers but allowing an unearned run charged to McLean on a passed ball that clanged off Alvarez’s glove.

“I was just trying to piece it together,” McLean said. “Nothing felt incredibly great. Everything felt OK toward later in the game. The full counts kind of snuck up on me at the end. Got a little bit fatigued.”

The Mets had scored only 14 runs in their previous six games, so Friday night’s output was quite a difference from their recent average. They went 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position, a welcome change from the 1-for-32 skid in those situations entering Friday.

The scuffling Semien, who was batting .130 (3-for-23) with eight strikeouts, hit a 407-foot homer in the fourth. One out later, Alvarez hit a 415-foot blast to put the Mets up 5-0. He added a 401-foot shot in the seventh.

“It’s good to just keep the line moving,” said Semien, a Bay Area native who was happy to have a big night in front of family and friends. “See the ball go over the fence a couple of times.”

The Mets already were down Jorge Polanco because of his worsening Achilles condition before Soto suffered his calf injury in the middle of their two-run rally in the first inning. Semien and Bichette delivered RBI singles, but the Mets still left the bases loaded. Still, that disappointment was nothing compared to Soto’s abrupt exit.

Of all the Mets’ nightmare scenarios, losing Soto — for any length of time — is always considered to be at the top of the list. So the Mets’ lousy opening week got significantly worse when Soto suddenly disappeared after the Mets took a 2-0 lead.

Soto smacked a single to rightfield in his first at-bat, extending his hitting streak to all eight games this season, but didn’t look right as he rounded second base on Bichette’s single to rightfield. Soto slowed up some but remained in the game until he was retired at the plate on Brett Baty’s 1-2-3 double-play grounder back to the mound.

Mendoza said they noticed his discomfort while he was standing at third base, then knew he had to come out, which doesn’t bode well for his prognosis.

“I never want to lose a guy like that,” 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. The good thing is we have a deep group. The guys on the bench should be starting on this team and somebody else is going to get a chance to try and hold it down while he’s out.”

Soto was one of baseball’s most durable players the previous three seasons, appearing in 162, 157 and 160 games. This year, he was the most steady offensive threat in the previously malfunctioning lineup. Coming off back-to-back third-place finishes for MVP, he was hitting .355 after Friday’s single with a home run and a .928 OPS.

A few hours before Soto’s removal, Mendoza revealed some unsettling injury details about Polanco, whose Achilles now sounds more problematic than originally believed. Polanco hasn’t manned first base — the position he was given a two-year, $40 million contract to play — since Saturday and was kept out of the lineup Friday for the second time in four games.

“I’m not going to say concerned, but it’s day-to-day,” Mendoza said before Friday’s game. “He’s got days where he feels it more. For the past couple days, he was in a pretty good place until tonight, so we’ll have to continue to monitor it. He’s getting a lot of treatment and the trainers are working really hard with him.”

Given Polanco’s learning curve at first base, Baty and Mark Vientos probably are better defensive options anyway. But the switch-hitting Polanco is supposed to be Bichette’s protection in the cleanup spot, so that required Luis Robert Jr. to move up to No. 4 for Friday night.

It’s also kind of ironic that the Mets chose to recruit Polanco for first base rather than pay the ultra-durable Pete Alonso, who played all 162 games the previous two seasons.

As frustrating as the early losses have been, the Mets can’t afford to start losing players, too. Especially Soto.

“He’s one of the key pieces to this lineup,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “But at the same time, this is the type of team, if you look around, that has a lot of pieces that can go out there and step up. It’s unfortunate that he hurt his calf, and it’s going to be tough to play without him. But if guys step up, I think we can be OK.”

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.