Inside Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor's game-winning grand slam

NEW YORK – Katia Lindor closed her eyes and began to pray.

When she opened it, the ball from Francisco Lindor's bat was still in the air – and on its way to the right-center field fence. “Come on, come on, come on,” she said to herself as it sailed on. Eventually the ball ended up behind the fence and in the visitor's bullpen. Chaos arose around them, a swirl of fans of orange and blue bouncing up and down and shaking the ground.

She started to cry.

“It's almost like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders and people are finally appreciating him and realizing his worth,” Lindor's wife said. “I think they notice it off the field and definitely on the field. I'm so proud of him. I am in awe of him every day. His hard work is just non-stop. He doesn’t.” Take his responsibility and his role lightly.

Lindor's grand slam in the sixth inning was perhaps the biggest home run in the short history of Citi Field and perhaps the best hit of his life. In one fell swoop, Wednesday's hit put the Mets ahead, giving them the lead and turning their entire offense into a 4-1 win that eliminated the rival Phillies from the postseason and sent New York to the National League Championship Series for first times since 2015.

The series-cliché grand slam — a true fairytale moment for Queens — also served as a metaphor for everything Lindor means to this Mets organization.

“I want to win everything. I want to win everything,” said Lindor. “And our team will be remembered forever. This will be a team that comes every 10 years and eats for free everywhere they go. And that's what I want to do. I want to do that. But the work isn't done yet.”

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, red-eyed with champagne and hysteria, said that everyone who watched Lindor in critical situations this year had the feeling he would be the one in a close fourth game the NLDS would achieve great success.

“I don’t know if there’s another baseball player you’d want starting in this situation right now,” Stearns said.

Just nine days ago, which can feel like nine weeks in October, Lindor hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning against the Braves, clinching the Mets' playoff spot. Over the next week, Lindor repeatedly reached base to set up key home runs for his teammates, including Pete Alonso's three-run blast in the ninth inning in a winner-take-all wild-card game against the Brewers and Mark Viento's in the ninth-inning two-run shot that tied Game 2 of the NLDS against Philadelphia. It's hard to believe that Lindor's dramatic 100-mile grand slam off Carlos Estévez was his first home run of the postseason, considering how much he contributed to each win.

​​“The whole time I thought this was us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said as he reflected on Citi Field. “That’s part of the story. That's part of the book, the movie, whatever you want to call it. Once he connected with that ball, I (Lindor) just wanted to have fun with it.”

“I don’t remember putting my hands up. But my hands were just in the air,” Alonso said of his reaction to Lindor’s grand slam. “Just incredible momentum. I mean, that was the momentum of my life. You practice that as a kid in the backyard.”

It's no exaggeration to say that the shortstop has led through every phase of the Mets' improbable run – from an 0-5 start to the season to 11 games under .500 in late May and elimination from the All- Star Game Odyssey to the NLCS. Lindor's attention to detail and ability to keep his cool in stressful situations are just a few reasons his teammates describe him as a consistent assassin, their MVP, their leader and their captain. Stearns said Lindor, 30, has dedicated his entire life to doing what he did Wednesday night at Citi Field.

His final act of leadership came not in the sixth inning but in the ninth, after Edwin Díaz walked his first two batters on 10 pitches. The Mets' embattled closer was on the tightrope of maintaining a three-run lead when pitching coach Jeremy Hefner called for a visit to the mound.

Díaz tried to cheer himself up by repeating, “Let's go, let's go.” That's when Lindor caught Díaz's ear: “Don't say 'Let's go,'” Lindor told him. “Just do it.”

In an instant, Díaz, who had trouble locating it, was throwing his 99-mph fastballs exactly where he wanted them – firing them off pinch-hitter Kody Clemens for a strikeout. After inducing a flyout, Díaz quickly took on postseason titan Kyle Schwarber before fending him off with a 101-mph heater, closing the door on the NL East champions' season.

As the Mets dugout filled the field, something great happened: Instead of rushing to the mound, the entire Mets team sprinted to Lindor, who was standing in the field, and hugged him. Then, and only then, did his emotionless façade disappear. He smiled, he cried, he laughed, and he looked around the Citi Field crowd and took it all in.

“We’re lucky to do this in front of the fans,” a red-eyed Lindor told FOX’s Tom Verducci. “We just keep climbing. My shot wouldn't work if it weren't for the guys in front of me. Today I was the one doing the runs, but it could have been anyone.”

But most likely it was Lindor, and it allowed a long-suffering fan base to witness a series win in Flushing for the first time since 2000.

“Great ballplayers do great things,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said of Lindor’s slam. “It was full of bases. It was a big moment, so I stood up. You knew something was going to happen.”

As has been his style this fall, Lindor was grave-faced and tight-lipped as he rounded the bases following his home run. Somehow he was the only one holding it together while the rest of Queens lost their minds. Outfielder Jesse Winker described Lindor as a “stone-cold killer.” Lindor's reserved reactions are a departure from the explosive, celebratory performances he used to produce in his previous postseasons with Cleveland. A few teammates asked Lindor about it and he told them he wouldn't celebrate until the job was done, until the Mets reached the World Series finale.

Just 24 hours earlier, Lindor said it was the calmest feeling he had ever felt in his six career playoff trips.

“I don't know, for some reason the reactions from me this year haven't been as nervous or as excited,” he said Tuesday. “I don't know if it's because I'm tired or if it's just because I'm trying to stay in the moment that I don't have that crazy reaction that I normally have. It's just like that, I'm in a moment. I'm living the life I've always wanted.

This also applies to the Mets.

As the team celebrated on the field in dark black T-shirts soaked in champagne, a fan held up a sign that read, “Believe in Miracles.” Another read “DESTINY” in orange letters. This is how the Mets will play in 2024: a team of destiny that is, above all, resilient. Coming into spring training, the Mets had a 2.2% chance of winning the NLCS, according to FanGraphs playoff odds. The same projection system gave them a 1% chance of winning the World Series. Now the Mets are just eight wins away.

Stearns had some poignant words for those who have criticized the core of these Mets — led by Lindor, Alonso and Brandon Nimmo — and questioned their ability to win big games.

“I think they showed that this is bullshit,” he said. “This core has been winning games since June 1st. So we can give that up now.”

And yet, in hindsight, Mendoza claimed that the Mets, who actually have the best record in baseball since June 1, hadn't done anything yet. Lindor said he wasn't even close to satisfied. The Mets are enjoying the moment, no doubt about it. But they are still hungry, and that should be a frightening sign for their next opponent. The Mets enter the NLCS as perhaps the most consistent team in baseball.

“This is what I wanted. I came here to play winning baseball and get opportunities to try to win a World Series,” said Lindor, whose play has already taken the Mets further than anyone outside their clubhouse imagined. “We have to keep climbing.”

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Deesha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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