NEW YORK — For several days, Francisco Lindor had been ill. But the situation escalated enough Wednesday evening to ask Lindor out of the game.
“It was a short throw,” Lindor said. Or do #2 with a short stop.
Lindor went home feeling depressed, his wife Katya had arranged for him to take care of him. Next to the bed, Katya put water, nausea medicine, Tylenol, Pedialyte and an empty bag – just in case. He slept a lot and woke up still sick. But upon arriving at Citi Field and receiving intravenous fluids, Lindor began begging trainer Carlos Mendoza to put him in the lineup.
“I knew this was coming,” Mendoza said.
The manager relented, though up to a point: Lindor will start Thursday’s series finale off the Cubs’ bench, then insert at some point in the game. As Mendoza told him, “Look, I know you’re going to come up big, so I’m going to give you the first four or five innings.
So did Lindor. twice. His pinch-hit, two-run double brought the Mets within striking distance in the sixth inning, before his walk-off, two-run double in the 11th gave the Cubs a 7-6 win.
“It’s great,” teammate Starling Marte said through an interpreter. “When you have a player like that dealing with an illness, it’s very uncomfortable. For him to come through in that game when we needed him and get two big wins, it was really special.
Marte — literally — played a relief role, joining Ian Happ and Bernard Gilkin to become the third player in the last 50 years to hit the most home runs. The first pitch was a 96.8 mph rope to right field to cut off Christopher Morrell, who was trying to score on a sacrifice fly in the 10th. His second was a 92.7 mph throw in the 11th to keep the Mets within one lead.
With an automatic runner on first in the bottom of the 11th, Mets reliever Daniel Palencia hit Harrison Bader with a pitch to put the opportunity on base. Lindor followed with a 6-pitch at-bat against Palencia, the final sacrifice bunt into the left field corner that plated both runners.
This gave Danny Young, the last man in the New York bullpen, his first major league hit. He also added to Lindor’s rising streak, matching his season high with four RBIs despite coming off the bench.
“Today I was a role player,” Lindor said. “This is what is coming. I had to be ready whenever my name was called.