Francisco Lindor slugs 17th home run in win Tuesday

The Roberto Clemente Award, which began in 1971, “is the annual recognition of a Major League player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions, both on and off the field.” Every team nominates one player for the award, and a panel of former players, journalists, and executives decides on the winner. Lindor was chosen, in part, due to his support for his native Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Maria and Fiona, an annual back-to-school initiative he runs in Queens, support for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and the Lindor Leaders Program, which, in partnership with New Balance, is a “year-long leadership development initiative for students in Bayside High School’s Sports Medicine Program that focuses on mental health, communication, teamwork, and leadership.”

He’s the fifth shortstop to reach 300 homers, joining Alex Rodríguez, Ernie Banks, Cal Ripken Jr. and Miguel Tejada (if we want to be strict about position, we can eliminate Banks and maybe Tejada). Lindor hit four homers in four games from Sept. 8-12, but he’d been stuck on 299 since, going 8-for-52 with one RBI in his previous 13 games. Now he has No. 300 out of the way at the conclusion of maybe his toughest season as a major leaguer. He ends the year at .225/.309/.423 with 21 homers and 49 RBI in 105 games. The .732 OPS is a career low, barely worse than his .734 mark from his first season with the Mets in 2021.

Sure, why not. Baty will make his third appearance of the season at shortstop during New York’s penultimate regular-season contest with Francisco Lindor taking a turn at DH. The 26-year-old former top prospect Has shown some serious signs of life in recent weeks, hitting .395 (17-for-43) with three homers and 16 RBI since the start of September. He’ll be eligible at four different positions, including third base, first base, second base and outfield, which makes him an interesting late-round target as a bench option in fantasy drafts next spring.

Lindor’s eighth career slam put the Mets on top 11-2 in the eighth. Long before that, he led off the top of the first with a homer off Gerrit Cole. The two homers upped his season total to 20, a mark he’s now reached nine times. He’s one homer away from 300 for his career.

Lindor’s home run was his 15th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Freddy Peralta in the first inning. Lindor’s average is down this year, but he’s now hit 12 home runs since the beginning of July. He’s hitting .232 with a .747 OPS and 36 RBI this year.

Lindor’s home run was his 13th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Kyle Harrison in the fifth inning. Lindor made the play of the game when he had to dive to catch a line drive with the bases loaded and two outs in a tie game in the ninth inning. He’s 18-for-65 (.276) with four home runs and eight RBI over his last 17 games. He’s hitting .239 with a .756 OPS and 33 this year.

Lindor drew a walk and scored a run in the first inning, then led off the eighth with a single and was caught stealing. He then came through for the Mets in the ninth, delivering the walk-off hit to score the winning run. The 32-year-old shortstop is hitting .244/.332/.442 with 12 homers, 38 runs scored, 32 RBI, and three steals across 292 plate appearances.

At first, it seemed like Lindor would be responsible for another disappointing game by the Mets. He let a ground ball skip past his glove that helped push across an early run in a game that stood at 1-0 until the sixth inning. Then, in the bottom of that inning, Lindor launched a 409 foot solo home run that tied the game. The Mets rallied after and held on to win this one. After a poor start to the season and calf injury that cost him most of the first half, Lindor’s now up to 12 home runs and a .769 OPS. Eight of those homers have come in his last 30 games though and he has an elite .921 OPS over that span.

Lindor’s homer was protected at 420 feet, and he also had a 104-mph double that would have been a homer in four ballparks. He’s hitting .286/.375/.549 with six homers and 18 RBI in 23 games during the second half. He totaled five homers and 12 RBI in 40 games during the first half.

The Guardians had briefly rallied to make a game of it before Lindor took Craig Yoho’s change up out some 380 feet to right field for his 10th homer of the season, putting the Mets’ lead back up to four runs. Lindor is in the midst of a challenging season offensively, but is hitting .258/.333/.518 over his last 15 games with four homers. He’s only attempted four stolen bases all season, which has broken his fantasy value almost as much as the injuries have, but Lindor is capable of reeling off a hot streak to end the season.