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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New York Mets designated hitter Juan Soto (22) reacts after getting hit by the ball on his ankle during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Mets designated hitter Juan Soto reacts after getting hit by the ball on his ankle during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday told the basketball teams from his alma mater Villanova and fellow Catholic university Notre Dame — in Rome for their season opener — that in matters of sport, the pontiff is neutral.
Then the pope, who was born Robert Prevost, said his former self might disagree.
“Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now,” he said to laughs during a whooping, cheering audience of 7,000 people from both schools — players, coaches, fans and their families — in the Vatican audience hall.
The teams were in town for the U.S. college basketball season opener in Rome. The Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport, about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.
The event has been dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off and was created to honor the first American pope.
The audience had been up in the air after the 71-year-old pope underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13 and is still recovering. But Leo kept the appointment ahead of Sunday’s opener.
Leo graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova, the Augustinian school near Philadelphia. He was born in Chicago — not all that far from Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, Indiana.
Leo, an avid sports fan and tennis player, dribbled a golden basketball presented to him by the Villanova women’s team. And when the towering players from Notre Dame presented him with a jersey and another golden ball, Leo stepped up to the podium where his chair sits to try to gain a few inches (centimeters) on them.
He gamely posed for a photo with the Fighting Irish, holding the banner they gave him “Pope Leo, Play like a champion today” — a riff on the famous Notre Dame sign at the university stairwell between the locker room and the stadium.
But he gave Villanova equal time, making the "V'" gesture with his hand as chants of “Let’s Go 'Nova” erupted in the audience hall.
After mistakenly starting out in Italian, Leo switched to his mother-tongue English and spoke off the cuff, recalling that in his native Chicago, he grew up hearing “Go Irish,” the Notre Dame chant.
“But as you all know, Prevost graduated from Villanova,” Leo said, referring to his past self in the third person.
“So the pope doesn’t take sides,” he said to laughs, before revealing that “Prevost has another opinion."
In his prepared remarks to the crowd, Leo urged the teams and their families to embrace sports as a way to grow in saintliness.
“No one is born a champion, just as no one is born a saint,” Leo said.
He warned against letting sporting rivalries get out of hand and he said he hoped the fans in Rome this weekend would actually get to know one another as they cheer, “even passionately.”
“In any competition, the members of two teams, even when they have a competitive rivalry, are certainly not enemies,” he said. “I hope, therefore, that despite the competitive nature of college basketball, there will be opportunities for the players and the fans of both teams to get to know each other in your days here in Rome.”
He noted that the game will take place on All Saints’ Day, and that the church teaches Christians to pursue saintliness in every aspect of their lives, including in sports.
“Our true goal, beyond emerging victorious in any one event, is to win the prize of everlasting life,” he said.
Like popes before him, Leo has praised the value of sport for both physical and spiritual development, calling sport a “school of fraternity” that nurtures friendship, respect and teamwork. But he also warned about how the win-at-all-cost mentality of sport has contributed to episodes of doping, match-fixing and other forms of corruption.
The Rev. Robert Dowd, president of Notre Dame, acknowledged Villanova had something of an edge in Sunday’s game, considering it counts the pope as an alumnus. But in an interview Saturday, he said the occasion to bring both teams together with all their fans in Rome for a papal audience and season opener was “amazing.”
“I know that the pope is a pope for all of us, and so I’m grateful,” he said. “I know in a particular way the pope talks about the importance of bridge building, and I’m sure he’ll be a bridge builder when we play each other.”
Villanova’s president, the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, said there was “a little extra pride” being with Leo, given his allegiance. But he said what happens on Sunday was not the point.
“No matter what happens on the court, this is the true highlight of the trip,” he said in his introductory remarks to the audience. “Tomorrow we will cheer, we will compete, but today we are simply grateful.”
Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez celebrated a private Mass for traveling fans in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday morning, and asked the thousands of people in the pews to give a round of applause to the players. The English-language liturgy was unusual in that it had all the trappings of a papal Mass celebrated at the main altar and televised live by Vatican Media.
Leo is an avid Chicago White Sox fan, and has been known to follow basketball, too.
Asked about the upcoming games on the papal plane during a recent trip to France, Leo said, “They tell me that the people coming to the match, 90% are Villanova and 10% Notre Dame, so the voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side.”
Pope Leo XIV examines a basketball he received as a gift in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
This combination of three images show Pope Leo XIV as he examines a basketball he received in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV poses for photographs in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026,at the end of an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV arrives in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, for an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
From left, Notre Dame's guards Braeden Smith and Logan Imes present Pope Leo XIV with a personalized Notre Dame's jersey and basketball as they meet in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men’s and women’s college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) CORRECTION: Corrects player at left to Braeden Smith and Logan Imes instead of Elijah Crawford, and Brady Muller
Pope Leo XIV examines a basketball he received as a gift in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
From left, Villanova's guards Elijah Crawford, and Brady Muller present Pope Leo XIV with a personalized Villanova's jersey as they meet in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
From right Villanova basketball player Jasmine Bascoe along with Villanova University President Peter M. Donohue, present Pope Leo XIV with a basketball in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A boy wearing a makeshift papal costume waits for Pope Leo XIV to arrive in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, for an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
St. Thomas of Villanova Church is seen through autumn leaves at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Villanova basketball team's Luigi Suigo talks to journalists prior to the start of the men's basketball team training session in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Students walk past an image of Pope Leo XIV at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
The Villanova men's basketball team takes part in a training session in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Villanova University is seen in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
