Francisco Lindor waved two fists in the air in celebration on Friday night when reporters brought up his .400 batting average over his last seven games.
Given the star shortstop’s brutal slump to start the season, a strong seven-game stretch is something to be celebrated, and while the Mets offense was shut down by Blake Snell and the Padres on Friday night, Lindor’s multi-hit game was a reason for further optimism that one of the team’s most important bats is finally starting to come around.
“I’m giving myself time to hit,” Lindor said. “That’s pretty much it. This entire time I’ve been trying to see the ball and put my body in a good position to hit the baseball, but I wasn’t getting in a good position. Now I’m in a food position. “
Lindor, who signed a mega-extension for $341 million over the offseason, held a lowly .157/.276/.202 slash line through May 5, but appeared to be finding his way out when he picked up eight hits over his next six games, including a home run. But it was just a tease, as he batted just .133 over his next 12 games before this recent stretch. Now, Lindor feels his body is finally aligned with his mind when he steps to the plate.
“My mind wanted to do something, but since I wasn’t in that good hitting position, I couldn’t do it,” Lindor said. “Right now, I’m there.”
While the month of May didn’t bring many direct outcomes to warrant optimism that Lindor was on the verge of breaking out, subtle signs have been there that he is finally finding his way back to his career mean. Lindor barreled up more than double the amount of balls in May as he did in April, and in a small sample size so far in June, his barrel rate is at 13.3 percent compared to 6.7 percent in May (it was 3.1 in April). Lindor is clearly squaring up the ball like fans have been used to seeing for most of his career, and for Lindor, it’s been a relief to see some of those barreled balls find holes and lead to results on the field.
“I’m very encouraged,” Lindor said. “I feel really good. I finally have some success on my side. Hopefully I continue this to help the team win and get some more Ws on this road trip.”
The Mets return home in a week, and Lindor hopes his streak can continue through the rest of the road trip, and by the time he steps into the box at Citi Field, his greeting will be different than the one he’s been accustomed to so far this season.
“When I get home, maybe I don’t get booed,” Lindor laughed.
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