NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Juan Soto returned to the starting lineup and homered Thursday for the injury-riddled New York Mets, who also learned Francisco Lindor has made progress in his recovery from a strained left calf before completing a sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 9-4 win.<\/p>\n
Soto exited a 3-2, 10-inning win over the Tigers in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, four innings after he fouled a ball off his right foot. X-rays were negative and Soto batted third as the designated hitter in Thursday\u2019s matinee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t concerned, I\u2019ve done it before,\u201d Soto said Thursday. \u201cIt was getting swollen big time, so I just tried to make a smart move. I know how to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Carlos Mendoza said Lindor, who was injured April 22 while scoring from first on a double hit by Francisco Alvarez, underwent an MRI Wednesday that showed \u201csigns of healing,\u201d though the All-Star shortstop is nowhere near a return.<\/p>\n
Mendoza said Lindor has been cleared to do more work in the weight room before beginning a running program.<\/p>\n
\u201cPositive sign,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to let it heal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendoza said there was no timetable for Lindor to begin baseball activities. Lindor has been sidelined for the Mets\u2019 last 18 games \u2014 four more than he missed the previous four seasons combined.<\/p>\n
Alvarez, who suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee while fouling off a pitch in Tuesday\u2019s 10-2 win over the Tigers, underwent surgery Thursday morning. Mendoza said the Mets expect Alvarez to miss up to eight weeks.<\/p>\n
Alvarez is the Mets\u2019 12th player currently on the injured list, joining Lindor as well as right-handers Reed Garrett (Tommy John surgery), Justin Hagenman (fractured rib), Tylor Megill (sprained right elbow), Dedniel N\u00fa\u00f1ez (Tommy John surgery) and Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation); left-hander A.J. Minter (left lat surgery); infielders Ronny Mauricio (broken left thumb), Jorge Polanco (bruised right wrist) and Jared Young (torn left meniscus); and outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disk herniation).<\/p>\n
In addition, Soto missed 15 games last month because of a strained right calf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Juan Soto returned to the starting lineup and homered Thursday for the injury-riddled New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[634,5,1443,1347,227,15622,120,134,25115,1716,369,101,4,1690,61,88028,2548,4203,9500,9501,9496,82611,9497,9498,22857,22858,22859,9019,4804,5971,1326],"class_list":{"0":"post-699076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-a-j-minter","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-carlos-mendoza","11":"tag-francisco-alvarez","12":"tag-francisco-lindor","13":"tag-jared-young","14":"tag-jorge-polanco","15":"tag-juan-soto","16":"tag-justin-hagenman","17":"tag-kodai-senga","18":"tag-luis-robert","19":"tag-mets","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-new-york","22":"tag-new-york-mets","23":"tag-new-york-mets-soto-lindor-injuries","24":"tag-newyork","25":"tag-newyorkmets","26":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","27":"tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","28":"tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","29":"tag-product-31999-ap-online-baseball-news","30":"tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","31":"tag-product-40792-ap-michigan-sports-only","32":"tag-product-40800-ap-new-jersey-sports-only","33":"tag-product-40802-ap-new-york-city-sports-only","34":"tag-product-40803-ap-new-york-state-sports-only","35":"tag-reed-garrett","36":"tag-ronny-mauricio","37":"tag-tommy-john","38":"tag-tylor-megill"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}