LOS ANGELES — If the Mets are going to confound the critics and ace their 2024 season of supposed transition, they are going to need star shortstop Francisco Lindor to be himself. They are going to need more than half of him, which is exactly what he was through the first three weeks.
The Mets’ 9-4 victory over the World Series favored Dodgers here late Friday was nice, but perhaps even better was seeing Lindor’s possible breakthrough from the left side. Batting left-handed, the switch hitter Lindor provided the winning blow, a two-run homer to right-center field off right-hander Daniel Hudson to quell the Dodgers’ sudden and fleeting momentum, break a tie game and send the Mets to their fifth straight victory.
Lindor’s seventh-inning shot and the Mets’ blowout victory made everyone forget the team’s unpalatable 0-5 start, and better still, he signaled that he may be getting past whatever was preventing him from living up to his status as a $341 million player, at least from the left side. Lindor took a 5-for-55 batting record as a lefty swinger into that at-bat, and he obliterated the baseball and perhaps even the bad feeling about his confoundingly bad beginning.
