Mets' Juan Soto leaves game after fouling ball off right foot, X-rays negative

NEW YORK (AP) — Mets star Juan Soto fouled a ball off his right foot, forcing him from the New York Mets' game against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night, and manager Carlos Mendoza said X-rays were negative.

“We got good news there, he’s day to day,” Mendoza said after the 3-2 victory. “See how he comes tomorrow, whether he’s a player for us in the starting lineup.”

Soto hopped toward the Mets dugout after fouling off Framber Valdez’s 2-0 pitch in the third inning. He dropped to one knee as he was tended to by an athletic trainer and Mendoza. Soto, the Mets’ designated hitter, remained in the game and struck out, then grounded out in the sixth.

“I was concerned as soon as he got hit, because it got him pretty good,” Mendoza said. “You could tell that he was in pain. And then just that (next) at-bat, he didn’t look right.”

Soto’s spot in the batting order came up with a runner on third base in the seventh after Bo Bichette’s tying single. MJ Melendez was at the plate as the pinch hitter when Carson Benge was thrown out at the plate by shortstop Zack Short on a delayed double steal as catcher Dillon Dingler applied the tag.

Soto, who missed 15 games last month with a strained right calf, was injured one night after teammate Francisco Alvarez tore the meniscus in his right knee while fouling off a pitch in the sixth inning of a 10-2 win. Alvarez will undergo surgery and is expected to miss at least six-to-eight weeks.

Soto went 0 for 3 and is 6 for 41 in May. He is hitting .263 with four homers and 11 RBIs.

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