Glass Calf Full

Met victories were so plentiful Friday night in San Francisco — for the club as a whole, for Nolan McLean, for power hitting, for clutch hitting, for remaining awake — that one is tempted to relegate to footnote status the little matter of Juan Soto exiting the game early with tightness in his right calf and requiring imaging to know more.

We don’t want to know anything at all when it comes to anything that could keep Juan Soto out of the lineup for more than the eight innings he missed after feeling something on his first-inning trip from first base to third. All we want to know is Juan Soto is inked into the two-spot every single day, unless Juan Soto needs to be moved to the three-hole. The Mets have played eight games this year. Juan has hit in all eight of them, including the one he had to leave. Whatever shortfalls the Met offense has experienced haven’t been because Soto hasn’t been slashing. Juan’s line is .355/.412/.516. Let’s hope those numbers don’t stay static for very long.

That anxiety addressed, what swell ways the Mets found to stop sucking! What a flirtation with perfection McLean gave us! He was through two when I began to think about it. He wasn’t in the fifth before I began to monitor my own behavior for impact on his performance 3,000 miles west. I noticed the full counts and the rising number of pitches, but I was nonetheless internally admonishing Carlos Mendoza that he better not be thinking of taking out a pitcher with a perfect game in progress, not when I’m doing my best to help the pitcher along by standing over here rather than over there.

On a surface level, I was buying into the kid’s chances. Deep down, I suspected I was mostly going through the no-jinx motions, and, sure enough, the sixth inning ended the late-night dream. After fifteen Giants came and went with none reaching base, Nolie walked a guy, then another guy, then, after one out, gave up a hit and a run, and I permitted Mendy to go ahead do what he had to do. McLean was removed after 93 pitches, having given it his all for five-and-a-third mostly sparkling innings. Few pitchers who struggled for command within individual at-bats ever looked so commanding taking care of every at-bat. Francisco Alvarez eschewed the services of interpreter Alan Suriel to describe for Steve Gelbs the quality of his pitcher’s stuff. “Nasty,” he said in fluent baseballese. Sounds right. We’ll try this again soon, Nasty Nolan. You’re worth toothpicking the eyelids for in any time zone.

Also worthy of eschewing z’s for was the catcher as he belted not one but two home runs, part of the onslaught that supported McLean and his relief successors in a desperately needed 10-3 triumph. Desperation comes early when first pitch is at 10:15 back East and your team has been trying your patience at decent hours. The Mets who departed St. Louis with hardly any runs on their ledger got going quickly and kept going incessantly. Alvy was joined in the dinger column by Marcus Semien, who it turns out still owns a bat. The veteran delivered three hits and three runs batted in. Mark Vientos continued to be viable, going 2-for-3. Bo Bichette went 3-for-5. Fifteen hits in all, six of them with runners in scoring position. Oracle Park’s circling gulls had little left to pick over once the Mets got through with Giants pitchers.

We’ll stay up all night for a result like this one. We’d rather not have to watch what an MRI machine reveals regarding Juan’s right calf, but maybe we’ll get lucky on that outcome, too. Just to be safe, I’m gonna stand over there rather than over here while hoping for the best.