With the Mets riding a six-game losing streak and struggling to produce runs, Francisco Lindor‘s leadoff home run on Tuesday night against Los Angeles Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto provided a glimmer of hope for what could be a breakout game for the offense.
Instead, it was more of the same as Yamamoto shut down New York’s bats for the rest of the night, handing them a 2-1 defeat for their seventh straight loss.
The Mets are now 7-11 on the year after starting 7-4 and have scored more than two runs just once (11-6 loss to Athletics on April 11) during their skid. After the game, Lindor was asked if the team is feeling desperate to get back in the win column, saying they understand the current urgency level and believe it can turn around.
“The desperation level? The urgency level is really high,” Lindor said. “I don’t think no one here is desperate, but we understand we have to win; it’s a must-win. We’re not going to sit here and just say, ‘We’ll get ’em, we’ll get ’em, we’ll get ’em.’ It’s everybody here has a sense of urgency and we’re all trying to win. It’s just a matter of time; we have to get it done.
“We’re still in the middle of April and we have the opportunity to finish the month on the positive side. Everyone here understands that the task is winning and we’re all going for it.”
Lindor accounted for two of the team’s four hits against Yamamoto, finishing the game 2-for-4 with the HR (his first of the year and his first RBI) and a strikeout. He was asked if it’s been challenging for the group not to be pressing at the plate while they’ve been struggling, reminding everyone that you need to have a short memory in baseball, whether the result has been good or bad.
“It’s human nature to get mad, to get frustrated, to say, ‘You know what, this has got to end,’ it’s human nature,” Lindor said. “But, in baseball, you get an opportunity the next day. So you got to learn from it, you got to turn the page as quick as you can and come back tomorrow.
“Tomorrow we face [Shohei] Ohtani. You can’t just sit here and dwell on it for a very long time. We got to come back tomorrow and face another ace. That’s it. Bottom line: when you win, short-term memory; when you lose, short-term memory as well.”
Lindor noted he felt the intensity of the team’s at-bats was improved compared to previous games. He knows they’ll need to carry the same approach against Ohtani on Wednesday, but it’ll be quite the challenge, as the reigning two-time NL MVP is 1-0 over two starts (12.0 IP) with a 0.00 ERA and 0.75 WHIP this season.
“It felt like just the conversations, the engagements, and felt like every at-bat we were going to get a hit,” Lindor said. “Alvy [Francisco Alvarez] took great at-bats, took good pitches. We took good pitches, you know, Yamamoto was throwing splits 92 miles per hour and executing the location.
“It’s one of those where as the game goes on, you see the at-bats, you see the way guys take pitches. It looked really good. Hats off to Yamamoto. Tomorrow we got to bring it again.”
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