Francisco Lindor's go-ahead three-run single in 6th lifts Mets past Nationals
Mets' Francisco Lindor hits a three-RBI single during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, Friday, May 12, 2023, in Washington. Credit: Alex Brandon
WASHINGTON — In the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Nationals, key contributors were aplenty.
Drew Smith recorded the final out for his first career save. Tylor Megill navigated through five innings (two runs, one earned) to earn the win. Francisco Lindor had the big hit, a three-run single with two outs in the sixth inning that brought home one more run than the Mets had in their previous 24 innings combined.
But the subtle man of the moment was Brandon Nimmo, whose mad dash from first on Lindor’s hit — with assists from third-base coach Joey Cora and Washington’s shoddy defense — accounted for the deciding run.
“Nimmo made the play,” manager Buck Showalter said after the Mets’ fifth win in 18 games.
Lindor said: “Nimmo can fly.”
And Nimmo: “I just kept running. I didn’t really know what was going on behind me.”
The Mets (19-20) trailed by two — and hadn’t scored in close to 48 hours — when they loaded the bases with two outs against relievers Andres Machado and Carl Edwards Jr.
Lindor got ahead 3-and-1, took a strike for a full count and fouled off another pitch to stay alive. Then, as Edwards delivered a fastball on the inner half, Nimmo took off — standard procedure with two outs and a full count, though not everybody does so with Nimmo-level vigor.
“A lot of people say, ‘I’m running on a 3-and-2 count and I’ll just meander off here and start running,’ ” Showalter said. “But he gets as far as the first baseman will let him. I guarantee you. I don’t even have to look at the tape. He’s sprinting when the guy throws the ball before that play. Most people assume that that’s not going to happen. Nim doesn’t, and that’s why we love him.”
Lindor pulled the pitch to right-center. At minimum, the score was tied. Centerfielder Alex Call fielded the ball and fired to the infield, missing his cutoff man and instead hitting shortstop CJ Abrams.
Nimmo never stopped and Abrams threw from an awkward angle. The Nationals (16-22) had no shot and Nimmo didn’t even have to slide.
“I’m not getting into their execution or anything, because it is what it is,” Showalter said, unsolicited, of Washington’s fundamentals.
Nimmo said: “I saw Lindor’s hit right off the bat and thought that’s gonna get in the gap, but how far I don’t really know. So that’s kind of what I was left with. When I saw Joey waving me around I thought it must be a good time to go. That’s one of the things, you have to trust your third-base coach. I just go until he tells me to stop.”
Cora, known for his aggressive green lights, told him to keep going.
“Joey sending him right there, it takes some courage,” Lindor said.
Lindor’s was the third three-run single in Mets history. The others belonged to Tug McGraw (1970) and Edgardo Alfonzo (1997).
The sixth-inning rally was the Mets’ reward for getting into the Nationals’ bullpen so early. They grinded lefthander MacKenzie Gore — who cruised against them at Citi Field a couple of weeks ago — into 96 pitches in four scoreless innings.
Showalter tried to get a second two-inning save from David Robertson in less than two weeks, but Robertson walked two in the ninth, so Showalter pulled him after 40 pitches.
That brought in Smith, who didn’t think he had any chance of getting into the game until a couple of minutes earlier. He struck out Lane Thomas swinging to end it.
“That situation is what you dream of as a kid,” Smith said. “Obviously, maybe a clean inning is what I really dream of. But that was all right. I’ll take it. First and second, two outs, game on the line. It was a perfect script. I’m just glad I could deliver.”
Smith, usually a setup man, added later: “[The adrenaline is] still pumping, so it’s a little different. I can see why closers — it’s a drug. It really is.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
