Francisco Lindor busts out of slump, carries Mets to series win over Reds
Francisco Lindor of the Mets hits a double in the first inning against the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Sunday in Cincinnati. Credit: Getty Images/Andy Lyons
CINCINNATI — During his terrible start to the season — a bad week, really — Francisco Lindor’s phone kept buzzing.
Sandy Alomar, his former Cleveland coach, reached out via text. So did Carlos Beltran, a longtime mentor and friend and now a Mets executive, who followed up on the phone. And Tommy Pham, briefly his Mets teammate, who remains a free agent. And Tomas Nido, one of Lindor’s closer New York friends and for now the Triple-A catcher. And Edwin Diaz, who sees Lindor in person all the time but felt compelled to shoot him an encouraging note Saturday night.
Comforted with those folks and others behind him, Lindor put the Mets on his back Sunday afternoon, leading them to a 3-1 win over the Reds for their first series victory.
His standout effort at the plate: 2-for-5 with a home run, a double and an additional run scored.
Entering the day, he was 1-for-31 in eight games, a pathetic-looking .032 average and slugging percentage to match.
“It’s good to know,” Lindor said, “there’s people on my side besides my wife and my family.”
His first contribution Sunday was a grounder toward third base, hit reasonably hard but the sort of batted ball that very easily could have been a routine out — especially when things are going the way they had been going for him.
“As soon as I hit the ball, I peeked at it and I put my head down,” Lindor said. “I looked up again and I knew it went through. Oh, OK, thank God.”
It got by Jeimer Candelario for a double. Lindor later scored on second baseman Santiago Espinal’s two-out throwing error.
In the fourth, Lindor launched a solo home run into the leftfield seats off lefthander Andrew Abbott (five innings, three runs, seven hits). The Mets managed two more hits the rest of the game.
“Like I’ve been saying: At some point, he was going to get going,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Lindor said: “It feels good. It feels really good to be able to contribute to the team. Nothing else matters but winning.”
His success did not carry over to the team generally. With chances to blow the game open early — and afford their relievers some rare low-stress innings — the Mets totaled one run in consecutive innings in which they loaded the bases with one out. That came when Brandon Nimmo was hit by a pitch.
Actually, Lindor was at the center of the first missed chance. He smoked another grounder, harder than his double but right at shortstop Elly De La Cruz for a double play to end the top of the second.
In the third, Tyrone Taylor struck out and Jeff McNeil popped out.
That meant the game remained close once lefthander Sean Manaea (five innings, one run) exited.
After Jorge Lopez tossed a scoreless sixth, Mendoza went to his late-inning trio for the final three frames: Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino and Edwin Diaz. They combined for four strikeouts and no hits.
For each, it was the third appearance in four days — raising workload-related questions again about their availability Monday, when the Mets open a four-game set against Atlanta.
So far, the Mets have played clubs that project to be mediocre. They are 3-6, albeit with three wins in four games after starting 0-5.
They know that Atlanta — the six-time defending NL East champion, winner of triple-digit games each of the past two seasons — will be tougher.
And they know their margin for error is slim.
“The whole year we have a big challenge,” Lindor said. “The whole year. We don’t have a team that we’re going to show up to places and roll through people, through teams. We don’t have that. But we do have a lot of good players who are ready to compete day in and day out.
“We have to play the game the right way to win. We can’t make mental mistakes and win. We don’t have that team. We can’t make physical mistakes and win. Everybody needs to contribute.”
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.
