Francisco Lindor's pair of two-run doubles carries Mets past Cubs
Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets reacts after his winning two-run double in the 11th inning against the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Overtired and dehydrated, Francisco Lindor insisted early Thursday to manager Carlos Mendoza what he always insists, even when in pain or distress or some other type of agony: He wanted to play, the 24-hour bug to which he had succumbed be damned.
Mendoza told him, OK, fine, but only for the second half or so of the game. Lindor needed those extra hours to recuperate. That relegated Lindor to, as he put it, “role player” for the day.
It turned out to be a pretty big role. After entering as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, Lindor wound up with four RBIs on two huge hits, including a game-ending, two-run double in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift the Mets to a 7-6 win over the Cubs.
The Mets (16-15) highlighted their homestand with two walk-offs, Lindor’s following Mark Vientos’ home run on Sunday.
“Everybody here is prepared. Everybody understands their role,” Lindor said. “That’s what it comes down to. I had to be ready for when my name was called.”
Mendoza said: “He came up and he came through. It says a lot [about] who he is as a player, as a person and what he means to this team. He’s willing to sacrifice everything to help this team. That goes a long way in that room and for the organization, and obviously for the fan base.”
The Mets were rallying from a four-run deficit in the middle innings when Lindor replaced Joey Wendle in the sixth. He saw two pitches from Keegan Thompson, lining the second to rightfield for two runs. Brandon Nimmo’s ensuing double plated Lindor, evening the score.
It stayed that way until the 11th, when the Cubs went ahead on Nick Madrigal’s RBI double against Danny Young. The Mets didn’t even need an out in the bottom of the frame, Lindor’s grounder into the leftfield corner off Daniel Palencia easily scoring Brett Baty (at second as the automatic runner) and Harrison Bader (at first after getting hit by a pitch).
Lindor described himself as “tired but happy.”
“Not a lot of sleep,” he said. “Not a lot of fluid in my body. But I’m good.”
Lindor exited the Mets’ game Wednesday night after two innings because of, as the Mets politely described it, flu-like symptoms. A bug had hit those around Lindor over the past couple of weeks, from his wife, Katia, to teammates including Wendle and Drew Smith.
So when he felt iffy Wednesday after several days with a questionable stomach, he tried to tough it out. That didn’t last long.
“I ate and for some reason I wasn’t digesting,” he said. “I took a couple of swings in the cage and said, well, today is going to be a different day. We’ll see how long I can hold it back. And after my first at-bat, there was no holding back.
“I know my body and I know when I can push through and when I can’t. It wasn’t a good time to push through that one, because I was either going to throw up at shortstop or do No. 2 at shortstop.”
Feeling better by Thursday morning, he was still at something less than full strength. But, apparently, full strength is not a prerequisite to hammer major-league pitching.
“It’s tremendous,” Starling Marte said. “You saw how confident he was, you saw how patient he was. That’s a hard thing to do. He was able to come up big for us.”
If Lindor topped the list of Mets heroes of the day, Marte was second. He ended the top of the 10th and the top of the 11th by throwing out a runner at the plate — a day after the Mets lost on a close, controversial play at home that infuriated Mendoza.
“Baseball is crazy,” Mendoza said. “Before you know it: two plays at the plate.”
Omar Narvaez was on the receiving end of both Marte assists, including smoothly picking a short hop on the first. Nimmo went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, driving in a run in the fifth to snap the Mets’ 15-inning scoreless streak. Young — a 29-year-old rookie — picked up the first win of his career in his team debut, limiting the Cubs (19-13) to a lone unearned run.
He inherited the game because he was the only guy left. All of Mendoza’s other relievers either had already pitched or were unavailable due to recent workload (except for Jorge Lopez, who would have entered in an emergency only).
“I was the last guy down there, so we were either going to win or lose, but I was probably going to be the guy with the ball at the end,” Young said. “I was trying to attack, not waste too many pitches. The defense bailed me out. Marte bailed me out. Narvy made a nice tag. Just kind of lucky it worked out that way. It’s all stressful, but it’s fun when you win.”
Adrian Houser struggled again, allowing four runs in five innings, which actually lowered his ERA to 8.16. Cubs righthander Ben Brown, an East Setauket native and Ward Melville High alumnus, held the Mets hitless through four innings but finished 4 2/3 with two runs allowed.
All of that became a footnote once Lindor got in the game, just as he asked.
Then came the next challenge.
“This is a scary thing now: to eat and get on a plane,” Lindor said, reiterating with a laugh: “It’s scary. I don’t know what to do.”
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.
