Francisco Lindor might not be able to do enough to overcome Shohei Ohtani in National League Most Valuable Player balloting, but he just might get the New York Mets into the playoffs.
Lindor and the Mets will look to continue their surge Wednesday night when New York aims to complete a three-game sweep of the visiting Boston Red Sox.
Tylor Megill (3-5, 4.82 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against fellow right-hander Tanner Houck (8-9, 3.12). New York is riding a six-game winning streak, while Boston has dropped four in a row.
Lindor’s two-run homer in the third inning on Tuesday extended a pair of impressive streaks for the shortstop, who has hit in 14 straight games and reached safely in 32 consecutive contests.
The red-hot run is part of a longer stretch of MVP-like play by Lindor, who is hitting .307 with 23 homers in 95 games since he became the Mets’ leadoff hitter on May 18.
While he is supplementing his offense with Gold Glove-caliber defense, Lindor likely is to have a hard time supplanting Ohtani — who is on pace to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ designated hitter — in the MVP race.
“If it happens, it would be a dream,” Lindor said of winning the MVP.
The Mets (75-64) have gone 55-40 with Lindor batting in the leadoff spot to climb within a half-game of Atlanta for the final NL wild-card berth. The Braves beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0 on Tuesday night.
“Right now I’m just trying to play winning baseball,” Lindor said, “and we’ll see where we’re at at the end of the year. And hopefully, we’re in the postseason.”
The postseason hopes for the Red Sox (70-69) have been endangered by the ill-timed skid. Boston remains 4 1/2 games behind the Royals, who occupy the third AL wild-card spot, by virtue of Kansas City’s seven-game losing streak.
The Red Sox have scored just five runs during their losing streak but threatened multiple times on Tuesday. Mets starter David Peterson had just two 1-2-3 innings over his six frames before Boston nearly tied the score in the eighth, when it loaded the bases with no outs.
However, after pinch hitter Enmanuel Valdez lofted a sacrifice fly to cut Boston’ deficit to 3-2, Mets reliever Reed Garrett induced Masataka Yoshida to ground into a double play.
“Although we put pressure on them tonight, we’re much better than this,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “This is a good offensive club that is going through a bad stretch right now.”
Megill earned the win in his return to the majors on Friday, when he gave up one run over 5 1/3 innings as the Mets beat the Chicago White Sox 5-1. He has never opposed the Red Sox.
Houck didn’t factor into the decision on Friday after tossing six scoreless innings in the Red Sox’s 7-5, 10-inning win over the Detroit Tigers. He has never faced the Mets.
–Field Level Media
