The Mets won on Tuesday in Citi Field over the Red Sox, 7-2. It was an important win for the Mets to keep pace — only 0.5 games back — with the Braves, who won 3-0 behind another dominant performance from NL Cy Young favorite Chris Sale. Mets fans had their eyes on a different award, though.
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is having an outstanding season, particularly since the Mets turned into a great team around the start of June. The NL MVP is very likely locked up for Shohei Ohtani, but Lindor has been serenaded with “MVP” chants at home recently and it was happening again on Tuesday.
He responded to the chants by playing like an MVP.
With two outs in the third inning, it was 0-0. Lindor made it 2-0 with one swing.
That was his 30th homer of the season. He has 26 stolen bases, so four more would put him in the 30-30 Club. He joined it last season for the first time. The only other Mets to pull off that feat were David Wright (2007), Howard Johnson (three times) and Darryl Strawberry (1987).
Lindor also joined another 30-30 plateau with that blast. As noted, that was his 30th homer. He already had 36 doubles. He now has five seasons with at least 30 doubles and 30 home runs, trailing only Alex Rodriguez among shortstops (A-Rod did it seven times at the position).
Speaking of doubles, Lindor came to bat with two runners on the Mets clinging to a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth. To MVP chants, he delivered his 37th double and 84th RBI of the year.
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns grew up a Mets fan and witnessed an MVP season with the Brewers (Christian Yelich in 2018). He had high praise for Lindor before Tuesday’s game.
“It’s been an unbelievable season to watch,” he said, via SNY. “We’re getting to the point I think where we’re talking about perhaps the greatest individual position player season in the history of this franchise.
“I’ve been around some really special seasons. I’ve been around some MVP seasons. This is right up there with everything that I’ve seen on a day-to-day basis.”
It was just last week that we discussed Lindor’s case for second in NL MVP voting this season and he’s only getting stronger. He’s now hitting .273/.343/.500 with excellent defense and baserunning to go with his clutch hitting and power hitting while being the best player on a team with the best record since June 2 (now 51-29). It’s been quite a run. He’s gotten his share of MVP votes over the years, having finished in the top 10 five times, but he’s never finished higher than fifth before. He’s going to set his personal best on that front in 2024.
