Francisco Lindor’s poetic series-clinching slam for Mets soars into October historical past

NEW YORK — Each October legend wants a legendary October second. For Francisco Lindor, this was that second.

It’s wonderful to attempt to comprehend what one swing of the bat can do — the tales it may possibly write, the recollections it may possibly make, the reputations it may possibly seal. However we noticed all of that occur Wednesday evening at Citi Area.

We noticed Lindor ship a baseball floating by way of the Queens sky. And when it got here down, nothing could be the identical.

There could be no NLDS Recreation 5 on Friday in Philadelphia, as a result of Lindor’s grandstand-rattling sixth-inning grand slam was going to complete off this collection, by offering all 4 runs in a 4-1 Mets win for the ages.

There could be no extra want for long-suffering Mets Nation to attend — yr after irritating yr — for a reminiscence like this, for a house run like this, for the euphoric series-clinching social gathering this wave of Lindor’s bat was about to unleash.

And there would now by no means be a time, for the remainder of his life, when folks — his folks — would ever query whether or not their shortstop was a person who was prepared for his or her metropolis, for his or her desires and expectations, or for moments like this.

FRANCISCO LINDOR. GRAND SLAM. #NLDS pic.twitter.com/CdKuEVOfT3

— MLB (@MLB) October 9, 2024

When a person hits dwelling runs like this dwelling run, they don’t ever actually come down. They float endlessly. However what made this dwelling run so poetic was that the person who hit it had already reached the purpose the place it felt as if he was nearly scripted to take action.

“I believe your entire ballpark thought that’s what was going to occur,” the Mets’ president of baseball operations, David Stearns, would say later, as drinks sprayed throughout him in a rocking, rolling clubhouse. “However then to do it, is simply absurd. It’s loopy. Completely loopy.”

It’s magical sufficient to hit a grand slam in October that provides your group a lead. However if you happen to thought that’s all this was, you’re not doing it justice. This was an all-time October long-ball fable. You can come very shut, in truth, to creating a case that there has nearly by no means been a postseason dwelling run fairly prefer it. That’s as a result of …

It was a grand slam that despatched his group to the NLCS. And within the historical past of postseason baseball, solely two different males have ever hit a lead-flipping slam, within the sixth inning or later, in a sport that clinched a collection for his or her group. One was Shane Victorino, for the Red Sox, in Recreation 6 of the 2013 ALCS. The opposite was Devon White, for the 1997 Marlins, within the sport that completed off an NLDS sweep of the Giants.

It was a slam that was accountable for each run his group scored. However right here’s what separates Lindor’s slam from all of the others. What number of males have ever hit a slam like that in a sport that clinched a postseason collection for the group? The right reply there could be none, in response to STATS Carry out.

And it was the primary lead-flipping postseason slam within the historical past of his franchise. This was truly the second late-inning slam in Mets historical past that gave them a lead in a postseason sport. The opposite was Edgardo Alfonzo’s ninth-inning slam in opposition to the Diamondbacks in 1999. However that sport was tied on the time. And it got here in Recreation 1 of the Division Sequence, not the sport that ended it. So … benefit Lindor.

However there was greater than only a particular historic context to this specific dwelling run. It was the emotional context that felt much more highly effective. As this baseball soared by way of the evening, it carried the load of all these years of Mets October angst, then launched them in a rumble of cathartic thunder.

How lengthy did Citi Area rattle and hum after this dwelling run landed within the Phillies’ bullpen in deep right-center? 5 minutes? Ten? Twenty? Or is it nonetheless rattling? It was a kind of uncommon sporting moments that lets you inform folks you didn’t simply watch it. You felt it.

Mets reliever Ryne Stanek was hanging out in his personal bullpen when the baseball left Lindor’s launch pad. And as Stanek wriggled his neck to attempt to maintain monitor of it, he was immediately gripped by that breathtaking sensation people have when it hits them what they’re witnessing.

“I stated, ‘Oh my God, that’s gone,’” Stanek stated. “And it was wonderful.”

Sit again and hearken to him inform the story of the enjoyment this flying baseball unleashed within the Mets’ bullpen, even amongst males who play the sport for a dwelling.

“It’s simply pure emotion,” he stated. “Nothing else. Like no different thought can cross your thoughts aside from: What simply occurred? Like, there’s no concern about the rest. You simply see the ball going and eventually, you may see the ball go throughout the fence. And all people’s like, ‘Holy (bleep), that simply occurred.’ And it was unbelievable.

“It was completely unbelievable. That second the place all people simply misplaced it within the bullpen, and we had been only a bunch of 5-year-olds. It nearly brings you again to being a fan once more. Such as you’re not simply watching it. You’re dwelling the second. So no person was anxious about, oh, I’ve to (heat up) for the subsequent inning, or the rest. It was simply pure pleasure — folks simply operating round, not realizing precisely what to do, simply shedding it.”

They usually weren’t alone.

“I felt like Ricky Bobby,” stated Pete Alonso, at all times there if you want an excellent Will Ferrell “Talladega Nights” reference. “My palms had been simply, like, within the air, simply in awe. Simply an unbelievable swing. I imply, that was the swing of a lifetime.”

Little question these guys would have felt that irrespective of who hit it. However this wasn’t merely a giant dwelling run by the twenty sixth man on the depth chart. This was a blast by a person who has been lifting the Mets up for weeks, for months, together with his model of baseball genius — and whose ardour for his sport, his group, and his teammates has swept up everybody round him.

“He’s an MVP,” stated outfielder Jesse Winker. “He’s carried us all yr. It’s like each time there’s a giant dwelling run, he hits it. I don’t understand how he stays so calm. He’s the MVP, he actually is. I’m so pleased with him. I’m so completely happy for him.”

All proper, so Lindor is not going to win that National League MVP award. Shohei Ohtani was in all probability at all times going to win it. However Lindor’s September again harm price him simply sufficient time down the stretch to seal that.

On nights like this, although, does that actually even matter anymore? Let’s hit you with a few extra tidbits on simply how particular this dwelling run was.

The Mets have been round for 63 seasons. They’ve performed practically 10,000 regular-season video games. And in all these years and all these video games, solely as soon as had they hit a lead-flipping late-inning grand slam even in a regular-season sport. Ike Davis hit that one on April 5, 2014, once they had been a run down within the ninth to the Reds. However that was in April. This was a clinch evening in October.

And that is up there even with October’s storied non-slams. During the last 10 postseasons, there have been solely 4 different lead-flipping dwelling runs of any measurement or form, within the sixth inning or later, that gained a series-clinching sport for the group that hit it.

Listed below are these 4. You’ll keep in mind them.

• 2019 World Sequence — Howie Kendrick (Nationals) off Will Harris (Astros)

• 2022 NLCS — Bryce Harper (Phillies) off Robert Suarez (Padres)

• 2022 World Sequence — Yordan Alvarez (Astros) off José Alvarado (Phillies)

• 2024 NLWC — Pete Alonso off Devin Williams (Brewers)

(Supply: Baseball Reference / Stathead)

So how about that: 5 gorgeous lead-flippers in a decade … and the Mets have hit two of them within the final week.

Hey, it’s been that type of yr and that type of October for a group caught up in a kind of magic carpet rides that don’t come alongside fairly often — particularly in Flushing. However simply if you suppose they’ll’t presumably prime the final second, a baseball goes rocketing by way of the ozone on an unforgettable Wednesday night in New York. And everybody who noticed will probably be speaking about it for many years.

“That was such a particular second,” Stanek stated, “for a man that’s so particular to this group and so particular to this metropolis. I imply, that’s the way you’d write it if you happen to may write the script. You recognize what I imply?

“Like, significantly, you’ve superstars in your group that come up huge in conditions like that. And that’s why they earned that contract. They arrive up huge in these moments. He’s simply an unbelievable participant, an unbelievable teammate, an unbelievable chief for us. And I couldn’t be happier for him. All of us couldn’t.”

(High photograph: Brad Penner / Imagn Photos)

Jayson Stark is the 2019 winner of the BBWAA Profession Excellence Award for which he was honored on the Baseball Corridor of Fame. Jayson has coated baseball for greater than 30 years. He spent 17 of these years at ESPN and ESPN.com, and, since 2018, has chronicled baseball at The Athletic and MLB Community. He’s the creator of three books on baseball, has gained an Emmy for his work on “Baseball Tonight,” has been inducted into the Philadelphia Sports activities Corridor of Fame and is a two-time winner of the Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Yr award. In 2017, Topps issued an precise Jayson Stark baseball card. Observe Jayson on Twitter @jaysonst