Lindor shrugs off woes, leads Mets past Reds
CINCINNATI - Francisco Lindor came into Sunday’s game against the Reds as cold as ever, riding a 1-for-31 streak to open the season. Consider the streak snapped.
Lindor went 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and a run scored to help the Mets defeat the Reds, 3-1, and win their first series of the season. Left-hander Sean Manaea held Cincinnati (5-4) to just one earned run, and with the high-leverage relievers available to manager Carlos Mendoza again, Edwin Diaz converted his second save of the season and the series.
“It feels really good to be able to contribute to the team,” Lindor said. “Nothing else matters. Whenever you can do something to help, it just feels really good.”
After going 0-5 to start the season, the Mets have now won three of their last four games. There are some issues that remain with the team but they believe they have the right attitude and have the right processes in place to be able to turn things around.
“We don’t have a team that is going to show up in places and roll through teams. We don’t have that kind of team,” Lindor said. “But we do have a lot of good players that are ready to play and compete and win. Every series is going to be a challenge, especially early on when everybody feels like they have a chance to play in the postseason.” Reds left-hander Andrew Abbott scattered three runs over five innings. He gave up a double to Lindor in the first inning and a single to Francisco Alvarez with two outs. The single by Alvarez should have been the end of the inning but Abbott was late to cover first base and the throw from second baseman Santiago Espinal got past him, allowing Lindor to score.
The Mets (3-6) loaded the bases on Abbott in the second inning by using a leadoff walk from Starling Marte and back-to-back bunt singles by Tyrone Taylor and Jeff McNeil. Abbott hit Brandon Nimmo to score Marte and make it 2-0.
In the fourth, Abbott (0-1) left a fastball up in the zone and Lindor took it over the left-field fence.
“I’ve been saying he’s going to get going,” Mendoza said. “He’s a good hitter. A special player. It was good to see him get some results today.”
Nothing has come easy for the Mets so far this season and it wasn’t any easier Sunday. They left eight men on base and went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position, stranding the bases loaded in the third.
The Reds lineup made Sean Manaea work for outs and ran up his pitch count. Luke Maile battled him for 13 pitches to lead off the third and he put the first three runners on base in the fourth before getting an out.
“That was a really good battle,” Manaea said. “He definitely made me work. It was fun.”
Manaea walked Jeimer Candelario, gave up a single to Stuart Fairchild and hit Elly De La Cruz.
Espinal’s fly ball to right field scored Candelario to make it 3-1. Maile then won a battle against Manaea, drawing a walk to load the bases once again. But Manaea got Bubba Thompson to roll over on a fastball and Brett Baty made a tough play to start a 5-4-3 double play.
“I was up on the grass, it was chopper to my left and we had already gone over,” Baty said. “If it was slow in front of me, then we were going to try to cut down the runner at home, and then if it was anywhere to the glove side we were going to try to turn two. Thompson is really fast, so we wanted to make sure we could get to or cut down.”