Francisco Lindor plays short and leads off for Mets
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor warms up before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Saturday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
DENVER — One day after playing pinch-hit hero and three days after breaking his right pinkie toe, Francisco Lindor was back in the lineup.
And it doesn’t appear likely that he’ll be leaving anytime soon.
Lindor, who delivered a two-out, two-run double as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Rockies on Friday night, played shortstop and led off Saturday night.
“He’s good enough, he’s in the lineup,” Carlos Mendoza said. “I feel like talking to him, little by little that he’s getting better and I’m going to continue to manage [the situation].”
Mendoza said he will look for opportunities to rest Lindor in runaway games but “when was the last time we played one of those games?”
“But yeah, definitely, it’s something that if the opportunity presents [itself], I’ll probably be a little bit more aggressive with him, but if not, I feel comfortable, talking to the trainers and with Francisco, we feel good with him going.”
Lindor said Friday that he was ready for a return; he can’t injure the foot more, so playing is about pain management.
“It’s a lot of treatment,” he said. “They have a bunch of different things to do and stuff to keep it stable. I had to run, I had to hit, I had to do different things to see if I was able to play . . . I was ready to play.”
Lindor’s sacrifices haven’t gone unnoticed.
“You get a guy that’s willing to put his body on the line every single day like that,” Pete Alonso said. “For me, knowing him, it’s like, of course he’s going to do that — of course. But when you really take a step back, that’s really special.”
Soto’s 1,000th game
Juan Soto played in his 1,000th major-league game Saturday night. Soto, 26, who has 212 homers and 820 walks, joined two other players to have at least 200 homers and 800 walks in their first 1,000 games. Ted Williams had 220 homers and 908 walks and Frank Thomas collected 238 homers and 829 walks, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
