Francisco Lindor beat the Brewers by himself Tuesday night at Citi Field, 3-2 in ten innings, and it wasn't close how big a role he played in it.
Start with the bat. Milwaukee grabbed the early lead when Luis Lara singled home a run off Zac Thornton in the fourth. Lindor answered in the fifth with a solo homer off Kyle Harrison to tie it. That swing also tied Dave Kingman for sixth on the Mets' franchise home run list, a fun footnote, but not the reason his name is all over this game.
The reason is what came after.
Milwaukee took the lead back in the sixth on a Luis Robert Jr. homer, and the Mets held their breath into the ninth. That's when the night nearly slipped away, and Lindor wouldn't let it. Austin Warren came on to protect a slim lead and immediately gave up a leadoff double to William Contreras and a tying double to pinch-hitter Christian Yelich. Runners stood at second and third with nobody out, the bases eventually loaded, and baseball's best team smelled a go-ahead run. The Brewers came into the night at 81-51, the best record in the sport. This was the moment they blow the door open.
Instead, Lindor dove for a catch at shortstop with the bases loaded and kept the go-ahead run from scoring. Milwaukee never pushed it across, going 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position on the night. A team that good doesn't usually leave that much on the table. Lindor made sure they did.
Then, because apparently the glove and the bat weren't enough, he scored the winning run himself in the tenth. Cesar Morel hit into a fielder's choice off Trevor Megill, and Lindor came around on a throwing error. To be precise, this wasn't a walk-off hit in the storybook sense. The winning run scored on a busted play. But Lindor was the run, and he was on base to be it because he'd already dragged this game to extra innings in the first place.
A homer, a diving catch, and the winning run. That's a one-man carry job you rarely see stuffed into a single box score.
Credit where it's due elsewhere: Thornton gave the Mets six innings of one-run ball, Contreras went 3 for 4 with a walk in a losing effort, and rookie Nate Lavender kept his career-opening scoreless streak alive by retiring all six men he faced. Jonathan Pintaro got the win. But this was Lindor's night from the fifth inning on.
Now, the honest caveat for anyone in Milwaukee ready to panic: don't. This was one extra-inning coin flip against a Mets team that, as of that morning, sat in last place at 60-72 but had been playing scrappy ball since selling at the deadline. The Brewers made the point themselves the very next night, hammering New York 8-1. A team with the best record in baseball loses a game like this and moves on. One rough ninth from a middle reliever isn't a crack in the foundation.
Tuesday didn't say much about Milwaukee's season. It said plenty about Francisco Lindor, who just keeps finding new ways to win games by himself.
