NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor wasn’t afraid to call out the Yankees for potentially cheating. And after he found himself at the center of the tensest moments of the most heated Subway Series game in recent memory, he backed it all up with a performance for the ages.
Lindor became just the third Mets players to hit three home runs at home on Sunday, with his third and final blast breaking an eighth-inning tie to lift the Mets to a 7-6 win over the Yankees at Citi Field in New York.
Sunday’s instant classic will be remembered both for Lindor’s power surge, along with his actions that helped spark a benches-clearing incident in the seventh inning. Over the course of the weekend, Lindor said he and other Mets got wind of the Yankees whistling from the dugout when pitchers — specifically Taijuan Walker on Saturday — were potentially tipping pitches.
So when Lindor hit his second home run of the night, he made whistling gestures towards Yankees players as he rounded the bases.
“I can’t accuse them of them, listening for the signs, because I’m not 100% correct. But I know what I heard, and I felt like there was something out of the ordinary going on,” Lindor said. “I heard what I heard. I’m not accusing them. I’m not saying they’re doing 100%, cause I don’t know 100%. But it definitely felt that way, and I took that personally. I wanted to put runs on the board to help my team win.”
When Giancarlo Stanton hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning, he jawed at Lindor while rounding second base, and the Mets’ $341 million man wasn’t going to back down. Lindor yelled back, and both benches and bullpens cleared as Stanton continued his home-run trot.
Lindor downplayed the extent of the incident between himself and Stanton, but his actions made it clear the Mets weren’t going to back down from anything the Yankees threw at them.
“I didn’t really quite understand what (Stanton) said, but I don’t think he was trying to fight,” Lindor said. “I think he was just telling me like, ‘Hey I can do it too.’ Or, ‘let’s do it a little bit more subtle,’ or something like that. That’s why I gave him the thumbs up, and I respect that. Both teams probably misinterpreted right there. I don’t think Stanton was telling me in a fighting manner, and that’s not the way I do things. I’m not trying to fight nobody, and I’m sure Stanton wasn’t trying to fight me, either.”
And instead of beating the Yankees in a fight, Lindor let his bat continue to do the talking. When he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, the shortstop said he wasn’t even aiming for his third home run of the game. He wanted a hard ground ball for a hit to try to get a rally going.
Then he got ahead 2-0 in the count, and he didn’t hesitate to turn on an inside fastball before sending Citi Field into a frenzy.
His final home run trot of the night didn’t involve any extracurricular theatrics. Lindor jogged around the bases, and when he crossed home plate, he thumped his chest and began the celebration with his waiting teammates.
With one final swing, he kept the Mets’ dwindling playoff hopes alive for another day, while also driving another stake into the spiraling Yankees’ odds of making it to October.
The Subway Series won’t be played again this season, but Lindor’s home run helped the Mets finish off another series win as they took four of six games from the Yankees this season. However Lindor will be involved in plenty of more games between the cross-town rivals in the coming years, and he made it clear the Mets won’t play second fiddle to the Yankees if he has anything to say about it.
His cheating accusations may not have reached the level of the Houston Astros’ scandal, but Lindor stood up for the Mets in what he viewed as disrespectful actions by the Yankees.
“(It’s) one thing when you’re in the batter’s box and you’ve seen something,” Lindor said. “Another thing is when you’re getting help from the whole entire team. There’s a game within the game … I just took it personally. If they’re doing it, I don’t know. I just took it personally.”
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Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com.
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