Francisco Lindor’s miserable May has largely been obscured by the Mets’ success, but it had no place to hide Tuesday night.
Standing at the plate with the tying and go-ahead runs at second and first base respectively, Lindor received four straight fastballs from Giovanny Gallegos. The Mets shortstop was overmatched, striking out to conclude a 4-3 loss to the Cardinals in the nightcap of a doubleheader.
The Mets won 3-1 in Game 1 behind Trevor Williams’ four shutout innings as a rotation replacement for injured Tylor Megill.
“I should have put the ball in play, but hats off to [Gallegos],” Lindor said when asked about the strikeout to conclude the nightcap.
Lindor had one hit in seven at-bats for the doubleheader. Overall he owns a .150/.243/.267 slash line in May after a hot stretch to begin the season. It follows his underwhelming first season (at least by the standards of the $341 million contract extension he received before playing a game with the team).
“I’ve got to do whatever it takes, just keep on grinding,” Lindor said. “Keep on working, keep your head down and leave the rest to God. I can only control how I go about my process and what I do in that process.”
Manager Buck Showalter said he isn’t concerned about Lindor’s numbers.
“I don’t have any problems … he’s going to be a good, solid contributor for us all year long,” Showalter said. “He’s playing the heck out of shortstop, great effort, I love the way he brings it every day. What may not be happening perfectly statistically, he’ll figure it out.”
Eduardo Escobar momentarily bobbled Tyler O’Neill’s grounder in the top of the ninth inning, an infield hit that brought in the go-ahead run. Tomas Nido was also charged with a passed ball in the inning that allowed Brendan Donovan to reach third base before he scored the go-ahead run.
Escobar charged on the grounder O’Neill hit and struggled with his grip on the ball.
“It’s a really difficult play, just because O’Neill is a good runner, so I tried to attack the ball the best way that I could because if you stay back he is going to be safe,” Escobar said through an interpreter. “The best chance I had was to get after the ball, but I wasn’t able to make the play.”
Jeff McNeil slapped an eighth-inning RBI single in the nightcap that tied it 3-3 after the Mets had extended the frame on Andrew Knizner’s passed ball. Escobar swung and missed for strike three — what should have been the final out — but the pitch eluded Knizner, allowing Escobar to reach first base. McNeil’s ensuing single brought in Lindor, who had started the rally with a walk.
Steven Matz — who spurned the Mets’ offer last offseason to return — pitched in Queens for the second time since leaving the organization in a trade. Last year that appearance came with the Blue Jays. On this night he allowed solo homers to Mark Canha and Escobar over five innings and departed with the Cardinals ahead 3-2.
Taijuan Walker slogged through five innings for the Mets, surrendering three earned runs on seven hits and two walks. It followed a seven-inning shutout the right-hander threw against the Nationals last week.
Williams, in his second start of the season, allowed four hits with six strikeouts over 65 pitches in Game 1. Last week, Williams pitched 3 ²/₃ innings of scoreless relief after Megill was knocked out early.
“Learning this new role has been a fun challenge for me,” Williams said. “I’ve had a lot of guys in my corner and I have reached out to guys around the league who have been in this role before, knowing what to do: not starting anymore and kind of like preparing and staying ready to pitch every day.”
McNeil and Dominic Smith each delivered an RBI double in the third inning that extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0. Lindor reached on Donovan’s error to begin the inning, leaving one run unearned for Miles Mikolas.
The Mets loaded the bases to begin the second against Mikolas and scored a run on Travis Jankowski’s RBI fielder’s choice.
Jake Reed replaced Williams for the fifth and walked two batters, but escaped without allowing a run by striking out Paul Goldschmidt and retiring Nolan Arenado. Reed returned to work a perfect sixth inning. Seth Lugo worked a perfect seventh before Drew Smith allowed a solo homer to Goldschmidt in the eighth and Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth for the save.
