Francisco Lindor masterclass

The Mets got back in the win column with a 5-3 victory in Miami, largely on the back of Francisco Lindor.

Lindor was excellent from the get-go, taking the way-too-early Cy Young front runner Sandy Alcántara deep to dead center in the first inning. Mark Canha added a home run of his own in the fifth inning, but the Mets’ offensive explosion came in a truly weird sixth inning.

Tomás Nido started the rally off with a single, and Brandon Nimmo followed suit with a single of his own — a bunt against the shift that was fumbled by Luke Williams. This brought Starling Marte to the plate, and the true weird stuff began.

Marte hit an easy double play ball to Willians Astudillo — who came into the game after Jazz Chisholm unfortunately left with an injury — who attempted to tag Nimmo and throw to first for the double play, which he did.

Or so we all thought.

The Mets challenged not one but both outs, and astoundingly got both outs overturned. Astudillo, in actuality, did not tag Nimmo with the ball, and used his empty glove instead. Marte also beat out the ground ball and was safe, which turned a rally-killing double play into a bases loaded, no out situation. Lindor would reward Buck Showalter and the Mets’ review team with a bases-clearing double, putting the icing on the cake for the Mets offense.

Taijuan Walker had a quality start in this one but battled throughout the game. He surrendered eight hits, and consistently got himself into and out of trouble. Drew Smith relieved him after a lead off single in the seventh and was, in a word, terrible, walking three (his last walk scoring the final run on Walker’s ledger), despite striking out two batters. Adam Ottavino relieved him and tossed 1.1 excellent innings, getting the ball to Edwin Díaz.

Díaz was up and down despite the save, surrendering a lead off single to Luke Williams before erasing him with a fielders choice. Jon Berti got thrown out stealing after a review (though, to be honest, he looked safe to me, but NEVERTHELESS!), and Astudillo hit the flukiest infield single one would see. The age old adage of “ball don’t lie” reared its head, when Jorge Soler sharply grounded out to Lindor to secure the win.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Francisco Lindor, +25.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Drew Smith, -9.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: +20.4% WPA
Mets hitters: +29.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Lindor’s bases clearing double in the sixth, +17.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jazz Chisholm’s fifth inning single, -13.4% WPA