QUEENS, NY \u2014\u00a0Francisco Lindor\u2019s final two months of this 2026 season are one of the most important things for these Mets, as they play out the remainder of a dismal campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It finally appears as though the star shortstop is coming around.\n<\/p>\n
After his customary slow start to the year was exacerbated by a calf injury that limited him to just 40 games in the first half, Lindor has found his swing. In his last 15 games, he is batting .291 with a .971 OPS, four home runs, and 13 RBI. He had his biggest night of the season in Monday\u2019s 14-3 beatdown of the Atlanta Braves, in which he went 3-for-5 with a triple, a pair of home runs, and six RBI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He accounted for the Mets\u2019 first three runs of the night against Braves southpaw Martin Perez with an RBI triple in the first inning and a 386-foot two-run home run in the third that just snuck over the left-field wall. In the eighth, he launched a no-doubter into the left-field seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even more promising was that he did all of this from the right side of the plate \u2014 a split in which he had only hit one home run with four RBI this entire season entering Monday\u2019s action.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best players in baseball, and it\u2019s a matter of time before the best players in baseball get hot,\u201d interim manager Andy Green said. \u201cObviously, he would have loved to have been healthier in the first half of the season, but he can only take care of today.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been especially hot over his last eight games, which began with a 3-for-3 day with a home run and three RBI on July 19 against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Since then, he has a 1.255 OPS<\/a> with three round-trippers and 11 RBI.<\/p>\n \u201cThe beginning of the year sucked, but I gotta get better, and I gotta continue to push myself day in and day out and try to find ways to be the best version of myself to help this team win,\u201d Lindor said. \u201cWe\u2019re humans. We all try to make stuff happen when things aren\u2019t happening. When things are happening, it\u2019s like a weight is off your shoulders and you just play free.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sucks the position that we\u2019re in, but we enjoyed today. We really play for each other, have fun, enjoy it, and then come back tomorrow and try to build again.\u201d\n<\/p>\n While the results have continuously not been there for the Mets this season, a 22-run outburst in two games against the two-time defending-champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the NL East-leading Braves at least provides some hope that something positive can be built, both for the collective and for Lindor, who is trying to salvage perhaps the most disappointing individual showing of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cHe stayed through a couple of balls,\u201d veteran second baseman Marcus Semien said. \u201cIt was good to see him from the right side and show that power. Everybody\u2019s starting to get healthy. It\u2019s a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n