Francisco Lindor's ninth-inning knock leads Mets past Rockies
Francisco Lindor of the Mets celebrates after his ninth-inning two-run single against the Rockies at Coors Field on Wednesday in Denver. Credit: Getty Images/Dustin Bradford
DENVER — It took almost the entire game, but the Mets finally came through against the worst bullpen in baseball Wednesday night.
They got away with a 5-3 win over the Rockies after Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead, two-run single in the top of the ninth ended a long stretch of futility, saving the Mets for at least a day from the embarrassment of losing another series to a noncontender.
The Mets aren’t playing their best right now. So they’re happy to take a win any way they can get it.
“We just got to find a way to play the game a little bit better and come out on top at the end of the day,” Lindor said. “This is the time of the year that we put ourselves in this position. We gave ourselves a chance to compete for the playoffs. And winning keeps our chances up. It feels great. We learned from today.”
After Colorado starter Ryan Feltner exited — with a shoulder/lat issue — after just one inning, the Rockies were forced to go to their bullpen, which entered the day with a 5.57 ERA, by far the least effective mark in the majors this season. Four relievers combined for seven innings of one-run ball.
The Mets (60-54) finally cracked the code against Victor Vodnik, the Rockies’ hard-throwing but wild closer. After Francisco Alvarez skied a one-out triple off the rightfield wall, Vodnik walked the Nos. 8 and 9 batters, Ben Gamel and Tyrone Taylor, to load the bases.
Then Lindor laced a line drive to left to plate a pair. Jesse Winker added an RBI single.
“Bases loaded, he has to throw strikes,” Lindor said. “Yesterday, he got me out. Today, it was my turn.”
What impressed manager Carlos Mendoza was the change Lindor made — and put into practice — after his at-bat in the second inning. That time, against righthander Noah Davis with two runners on base and one out, Lindor got ahead 3-and-0 and got greedy.
He took a huge swing at a sinker over the plate but whiffed. He did it again on the next pitch but grounded out.
“He admitted it,” Mendoza said. “We were talking between innings. ‘Man, I got too big there.’ I said, yeah, you did. But that’s what good players do — and we got a lot of them. They have that ability to make adjustments on a night where we were having a hard time putting something together.”
Lindor said: “I felt like I was missing pitches that were right there, that I should’ve hit . . . I was like, all right, I got to make an adjustment.”
That worked out in the ninth, when he was ready for a first-pitch slider from Vodnik. It was on the outer half of the plate, so Lindor served it to leftfield.
He didn’t need to do too much, so he didn’t.
“For him to make that adjustment in-game, against a pretty good arm, to go the other way [is impressive],” Mendoza said. “He’s done it for a long time in his career: not trying to get too big, not trying to do too much. Going the other way, taking what’s given and using the whole field, especially in a ballpark like this, when people are probably going to try to go for the seats there, which he did in his previous at-bat.”
Righthander Paul Blackburn turned in his second quality start in as many outings since joining the Mets in a trade deadline deal with the Athletics. He held the Rockies to two runs (one earned) and five hits across six innings, walking two and striking out six.
Colorado (42-73) aided Blackburn with an ugly effort with runners in scoring position, going 1-for-6 in those spots. the one coming on Kris Bryant’s slow roller toward third base that became an RBI single.
“He had all of his pitches working,” Mendoza said. “He was pretty impressive today.”
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.
