NEW YORK -- Almost immediately upon hitting the turf, Francisco Lindor bounced back to his feet, looked up toward the Citi Field crowd and screamed. He pounded his chest once, then twice, eventually lifting both hands above his head.
Lindor’s diving catch, which prevented the go-ahead runs from crossing home for the Brewers in the ninth inning Tuesday, probably won’t have any real impact on the Mets’ season. The 3-2 walk-off win in 10 innings that ended with a David Hamilton throwing error won’t lift New York into the playoffs, nor erase much of the bad taste from this summer.
But it was something. For Lindor, it was something.
“The team has picked me up more times than I’ve picked them up this year,” Lindor said. “So to be there for the guys, it meant a lot. I’ve been wanting to do that.”
Within the context of Tuesday’s game, the Mets never needed Lindor more than in the top of the ninth, when a bullpen crunch forced them to entrust middle reliever Austin Warren with a one-run lead. Warren quickly allowed the tying run to score before the Mets turned things over to Jefry Yan, who walked a batter to load the bases with two outs.
The next batter, Hamilton, lofted a soft line drive toward shortstop, where Lindor was shaded up the middle. He had less than two seconds to race to his right, dive and snare the baseball, robbing Hamilton of a go-ahead hit that would have likely scored two runs.
“I already saw that ball down,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “It’s that deflating feeling when you know the ball’s about to land. He came out of nowhere.”
It was the type of play that, in any other year of Lindor’s career, might have seemed inevitable. Not so this year. On either side of a two-month stay on the injured list due to a badly strained left calf, Lindor struggled, particularly defensively. In his first 17 games back from the IL, the typically surehanded Lindor committed five errors, leading to a season-long total of nine.
Among the 25 Major League shortstops with at least 500 innings at the position entering Tuesday’s play, Lindor ranked 22nd in fielding percentage. His total of -3 Outs Above Average was not only the worst of his career, but also his only foray into negative territory.
Statistically, Lindor was costing the Mets runs and costing the Mets games. He knew it. He vowed multiple times to be better.
Tuesday, at a crucial moment, he was.
“I’ve seen Lindor play,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “That’s why this team is playing so well, because he’s playing good, too. He’s a great player, so anytime he’s near the ball I think there’s a chance that some way, he can catch it.”
In addition to his diving grab of Hamilton’s liner, Lindor hit a game-tying homer in the fifth inning and scored the winning run in the 10th, racing home fast enough to force a wild Hamilton throw on Christopher Morel’s fielder’s choice. All told, Lindor finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, while also making multiple fine plays at shortstop. He has a .901 OPS over his last 33 games, raising his season total from .639 to .756.
“He’s playing really well -- has for a considerable period of time now,” Green said. “It was a really tough season to get on track for him and get the ball rolling in the right direction. … But once he got to playing baseball consistently, he’s been great. One of the best players in the game.”
That narrative arc is why Lindor unleashed so much emotion when he caught Hamilton’s liner. As Green put things, “I think we’re all cognizant of where we are” -- last place, 0.1 percent chance to make the playoffs, no realistic hope for team glory over the season’s final five weeks. Lindor, meanwhile, isn’t likely to receive any MVP votes. This will never become one of his better campaigns.
That doesn’t give him any less incentive to be who he can be. Asked about his goals for late August and September, Lindor replied: “Be the best version of myself. Be Francisco Lindor. Just play as hard as I can day in and day out, give everything I’ve got to the guys, and we’ll see where it takes us.
“For every other sport, we’ve still got a lot of games left,” Lindor added. “For our sport, we don’t. But good things can happen.”