It’s well-documented that Francisco Lindor’s first season as a Met didn’t get off to the best start.
Through the month of April, he was slashing just .189/.299/.243 with nearly as many strikeouts (11) as hits (14).
And while May was a bit of a slog as well, Lindor’s bat has started to come around of late, as evidenced by his two-run home run in the first inning of Saturday’s 4-1 win over the San Diego Padres.
Over his last 15 games, Lindor has slashed .281/.349/.526 with three homers, six RBI, and six runs scored, and those boos he once heard at Citi Field have turned to cheers.
“It feels great. It’s a little bit of a relief,” Lindor said of not hearing boos from the Citi Field faithful. “The first couple of game when I got booed, it felt like I was playing on the road, now it feels like I’m home, and I want to thank the crowd for showing up and supporting the whole team.
“We win with them, we don’t win without them. They’re a big part of our success every single time, and they definitely put a lot of pressure on other teams.”
Lindor’s glove has been at a Gold Glove level all season long, but now his at-bats are beginning to match his stellar defensive play.
And as Lindor’s numbers have crept back up, it’s no coincidence that the Mets have been winning games, now sitting 4.5 games ahead of the Phillies for first place.
According to Lindor, though, the Mets aren’t focused on the standings. Instead, they just take it one day at a time, trying to win every time they hit the field.
“We play the game day in and day out as hard as we can to get the W that day,” he explained.
“Yeah, you hear people talking about it, but not us here in the clubhouse. We focus on our task on a daily basis, and whenever we don’t come up with the W, try to come back the next day and try to get the win at the end of the day. It’s such a long season. It’s such a long season. I think we still have 100+ games left, a lot of baseball left. As long as we continue to get healthy and stay healthy, we’ll be in a good spot.”