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Maybe the moment was just a little too big for Bowden Francis. Or maybe what happened late Wednesday afternoon in Toronto was simply more proof that Francisco Lindor and the Mets are destined to finish off this compelling turnaround season in a memorable way.
Francis, the Blue Jays’ starter who has pitched brilliantly of late, was ahead in the count on Lindor 0-2, needing three more outs to finish off a no-hitter and 1-0 win.
The 28-year-old righthander had just gotten Lindor to swing and miss at an 0-1 splitter, his put-away pitch that opponents are hitting .160 against this season with no home runs.
And clearly, his intention with the next pitch was to throw a fastball about neck-high, where catcher Brian Serven was motioning with his glove, to either get a chase from Lindor or set him up for another splitter.
Instead, Francis threw it at 92 mph pretty much down the middle and Lindor turned the pitch into a signature moment for his MVP candidacy, crushing a home run that ended the no-hitter and saved the day for the Mets.
Given new life the Mets scored five more runs to turn what loomed as a deflating loss into yet another “Ya Gotta Believe” 6-2 win.
“I’m sure the kid is kicking himself,” an NL scout told me Wednesday night. “If you’re going to miss there you’ve obviously got to miss up, not down, and then at worst come back with another splitter.
“I’m surprised because Francis is all about command and feel. it’s kind of hard to believe he’d make that kind of mistake there. Especially after he got beat by a fastball in the same situation a couple of weeks ago, (going for a no-hitter in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels and giving up a home run to Taylor Ward).
“Hey, you see a lot of crazy things in this game. And sometimes it’s just your year. Watching the Mets it kind of feels that way right now.”
It’s hard to argue with sentiment at the moment, as the Mets continue to find ways to win, often in dramatic fashion, even when they’re not hitting as a team, and maintain their push for a Wild Card spot.
Not that there is anything fluky about the way they’ve played themselves back into contention. Heck, they’re 56-31 since June 2, when it looked like their season was going nowhere at 24-35, good enough that you can make the argument they’ve been the best team in baseball during that stretch.
And while they’d already proven a certain mental toughness by turning their season around, their recent nine-game winning streak came on the heels of a couple of gut-punch bullpen meltdowns that had them teetering in the Wild Card race, four games behind the Braves.
So they can take a punch, to be sure.
Beyond that these Mets have demonstrated a certain resourcefulness in finding ways to win games. Call it gutty. Call it clutch. They’ve got a superstar in Lindor who is doing MVP things practically on a nightly basis, and often special seasons are built around such heroics.
His offensive numbers won’t match up with those of Shohei Ohtani, but make no mistake, Lindor has carried the Mets in the second half. He has 14 home runs in his last 48 games to go with a .928 OPS, and his excellent defense at shortstop should absolutely put him on equal footing with Ohtani in the MVP race.
Just a few days ago he and Jose Iglesias turned a couple of eye-popping double plays in the early innings that may well have changed the entire game for Jose Quintana and were surely pivotal in enabling the Mets to go on to a 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
But there is more at work here for this team. When both Lindor and Mark Vientos cooled off with the bats a few days ago, and the Mets’ offense was slumping, they still managed to win two out of three from both the Reds at home and then the Blue Jays in Toronto.
There were just enough clutch hits, and a certain killer instinct as they took advantage of sloppy play by the opponent. And there was also a lot of good starting pitching, which, against all odds has become the Mets’ strong suit.
Sean Manaea, who was brilliant again on Wednesday, Luis Severino, and David Peterson have become “The Big Three,” as SNY analyst Keith Hernandez labeled them recently, consistently going deep into games over the last several weeks, stringing together dominant starts.
In addition, Quintana has bounced back nicely from a mini-slump and, seemingly out of nowhere, Tylor Megill overmatched the Blue Jays over six shutout innings on Monday, allowing one hit, to make his case that he should stay in the rotation as Paul Blackburn recovers from a back issue.
“Their starters have really become the backbone of this team,” the NL scout said. “And they’re good enough at the top of the rotation to match up with a lot of teams in the postseason.”
The numbers are proof enough. Since July 1, Mets starters have a 3.51 ERA, third-best in the majors, and just as significantly, their ability to go deep into games has taken a load off a bullpen that was overworked and unreliable in the first half of the season.
Yes, with Edwin Diaz bouncing back from those killer home runs he gave up in San Diego and Arizona, trusting his fastball again as his velocity has suddenly climbed to 100 mph for the first time this season, the bullpen is still another piece that is falling into place at the most critical time.
It doesn’t mean the Mets are a lock for anything, of course. Their Wild Card hopes may come down to a series in two weeks in Atlanta, where there is all that baggage from the stunning late-season sweep at the hands of the Braves in 2022 that cost them the NL East title.
Until then, well, the ’24 Mets are offering a lot of reasons to believe it will be different this time. And none more so than Lindor’s 0-2 swing in the ninth inning on Wednesday in Toronto.
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