He gave his all and gave his all for the Mets for five months. On the final Monday of the season, with the Mets gasping for breath, he hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning that was as close to CPR as the sport would allow. The Mets threw runner after runner on base on Wednesday, leaving the Phillies with a chance to chase. He cleared those bases with one more eternal swing.
Forget whether Francisco Lindor deserves the National League Most Valuable Player award, he mets Most Valuable Player. That goes without saying.
I did it all, I was everything.
So it seems like an unfair request to present him with what the Mets need from him right now. It almost feels greedy. Even though Lindor and friends have done their best over the past few weeks to refute this theory, real-life baseball games aren't the same as the ones in the movies. You can't just script these things.
But let's write the script anyway.
Because the Mets really need Lindor to provide an immediate spark in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. They need an immediate injection of life after Sunday's 9-0 blowout loss to the Dodgers.
“We need to do better,” Carlos Mendoza said when the massacre was complete. “We need to be better.”
Not only is Lindor the most likely candidate to make it happen, he's also the Mets' first option if he leads the game against the relief pitchers that Dave Roberts sends to start against the Los Angeles bullpen. Probably.
The Dodgers have 33 consecutive zeros hanging on a clothesline at Dodger Stadium. One more and they would break their 1966 postseason tie with the Orioles. The opponent at that time was the Dodgers. Because baseball is helpless and obsessed with symmetry and historical callbacks.
It is the Mets' duty to keep this winning streak from reaching 34. It would be in their best interest to jump over the Dodgers and not make the beautiful people in Dodger Stadium cough up their throats and pretend to be a real baseball crowd. The Mets need to prepare a counter. They must be ready to answer.
And Lindor has to give an answer. quick. It's on his bat. As always, it falls on his shoulders.
“Today was one of those days,” he said wearily late Sunday night.
Monday must be a day like this: It's the day Lindor announces: “Today is a new day. This is a new game. Come on, follow me, boys.”
you know. Like I've been doing almost every day since June 1st.
“We were all ready,” Lindor said. “At the end of the day, we didn't play a better game than they did.”
Lindor promises they will. Indeed, Sean Manaea would be a running mate in this effort. The Mets need Manaea, who has pitched frequently over the final two months of the season, to look like he did when he showed seven innings worth of tenacious brilliance in a 7-2 victory over the Phillies in Game 3 on Tuesday. Needs pitching.
But it's Lindor who has a chance to tell Los Angeles to calm down. And look, we're not crazy enough to say Lindor should hit a lead-off home run even though the game is only nine miles from the “HOLLYWOOD” sign.
(Although, sure, that's what Lenny Dykstra did in Game 3 of the 1986 World Series, and once again, did a blessed Mets team use up its entire pixie dust allotment? (And certainly, so did Derek Jeter.) He led the way in Game 4 of the 2000 World Series, sending a message that the Mets weren't going to mess around getting back into the series. )
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No, I won't go that far.
But let's move on.
Lindor has to set the tone. Lindor has to set the tone. Yes: Even if it was the Mets' worst game in months, it was only one game. History is full of best-of-seven series where teams lose in the opening game and come back to win the series. The Mets came to Los Angeles looking for a breakup. They could still split up.
But these things can get worse. These things can grow. The Dodgers should already feel like they can shut out the 2027 Yankees if necessary. It's easy to feel vulnerable when you go 33 games without a point (the first 24 against the hard-hitting Padres, the last nine against the hard-hitting Mets).
Lindor can change that. He can hit. He can draw a walk. Hell, he can simply put together super-professional at-bats, which have been as big a part of his game in recent weeks as the home runs. The Mets on Sunday hardly looked like they belonged on the same field as Los Angeles, with offense, defense and Jesse Winker's brain spasms on the basepaths.
Jack Flaherty was great.
“Hats off to him,” Lindor said.
But there's still a chance on Monday. There is still a chance of division. There's still a chance to counterattack. It starts with Lindor. Because everything good these past few weeks started with Lindor. Why should it be different now?
