NEW YORK -- The Mets have become so adept at this walk-off thing that they now understand, down to the moment, exactly what to expect. So, shortly after Francisco Lindor hit a walk-off sacrifice fly Monday to give the Mets a 2-1 win over the White Sox at Citi Field -- as teammates Brandon Nimmo and Brett Baty approached carrying a large water jug -- Lindor needed only a quick glance backward to plot his next move.
“Come here!” Lindor yelled, grabbing SNY sideline reporter Steve Gelbs with both arms to prevent him from escaping. As Nimmo and Baty dumped the jug over Gelbs’ head, Lindor leaped out of the way, leaving one person -- the wrong person -- soaking wet.
“Instincts,” Lindor said, laughing. “One of us was going to survive -- either me or him -- and he didn’t.”
The walk-off RBI was Lindor’s third of the year and the Mets’ fifth as a team in just 26 home games. Since the start of last season, New York has 16 walk-offs, which is tied for second-most in the Majors. This was also the Mets’ 13th comeback win and their third in as many games. They’ve won each of their last four one-run games.
Lindor, meanwhile, is the first Met since Wilmer Flores (four in 2018) to deliver three or more walk-off RBIs in a season.
Put another way, the Mets have become really, really good at this sort of thing. And Lindor has been at the center of much of it.
“Over and over and over, he keeps doing it,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve got a few [players] like that, too, that you feel really good about your chances when they’re at the plate with the game on the line. Right away, he didn’t waste any time. He was ready to go from the first pitch, and the game was over.”
Indeed, Lindor attacked the first pitch he saw from White Sox reliever Steven Wilson with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth, shooting it 329 feet to right field for an easy sacrifice fly.
“He knows he’s good,” Mendoza said. “His ability to slow the game down -- the moment’s never too big for him. He’s aggressive with good pitches to hit. He’s got conviction when he’s making those decisions, and that’s what great players do.”
As has become his custom following game-winning hits, Lindor did his best to deflect credit to his teammates. On this night, he had a pretty good point. Consider:
- After Adrian Houser and Chicago’s bullpen stymied his team for most of the afternoon, Francisco Alvarez overcame a weeks-long slump to spark the game-tying rally in the eighth, grounding a single into left field.
- Luisangel Acuña, who subsequently pinch-ran for Alvarez, went first-to-third on a Brandon Nimmo single before scoring easily on a Juan Soto sacrifice fly. His speed changed the game.
- Soto overcame his own season-long issues to plate that tying run.
- Tyrone Taylor hit a booming double in the ninth to put the winning run on base and has increased his batting average 96 points over the last six weeks.
- Finally, the bullpen contributed 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Clay Holmes, giving the Mets a chance in the first place.
That’s not to say everything is hunky-dory in Flushing. The Mets are, after all, playing the White Sox -- a team that set the modern Major League record for losses last season and that is barely on pace to do better this year. Moreover, New York’s situational hitting struggles deepened on Monday. As a team, they’re still slashing .198/.300/.302 with runners in scoring position in May. Until they fix those problems, the Mets will find it difficult to be consistent.
But there’s no denying this team understands how to win when the game is close, when the moment is big, when the crowd is loud. That matters, too.
“I think there’s just a lot of confidence in what we do,” Holmes said. “I think the biggest thing is the effort is always there. It shows up in times like this.”
Added Lindor: “It puts smiles on our face, because there are different ways of winning ballgames, and today was one of them. Whenever it seems like it’s not clicking but things are clicking, it’s a good thing.”