NEW YORK — Every October legend needs a legendary October moment. For Francisco Lindor, this was that moment.
It’s amazing to try to comprehend what one swing of the bat can do — the stories it can write, the memories it can make, the reputations it can seal. But we saw all of that happen Wednesday night at Citi Field.
We saw Lindor send a baseball floating through the Queens sky. And when it came down, nothing would be the same.
There would be no NLDS Game 5 on Friday in Philadelphia, because Lindor’s grandstand-rattling sixth-inning grand slam was going to finish off this series, by providing all four runs in a 4-1 Mets win for the ages.
There would be no more need for long-suffering Mets Nation to wait — year after frustrating year — for a memory like this, for a home run like this, for the euphoric series-clinching party this wave of Lindor’s bat was about to unleash.
And there would now never be a time, for the rest of his life, when people — his people — would ever question whether their shortstop was a man who was ready for their city, for their dreams and expectations, or for moments like this.
FRANCISCO LINDOR. GRAND SLAM. #NLDS pic.twitter.com/CdKuEVOfT3
— MLB (@MLB) October 9, 2024
When a man hits home runs like this home run, they don’t ever really come down. They float forever. But what made this home run so poetic was that the man who hit it had already reached the point where it felt as if he was almost scripted to do so.
“I think the entire ballpark thought that’s what was going to happen,” the Mets’ president of baseball operations, David Stearns, would say later, as beverages sprayed all around him in a rocking, rolling clubhouse. “But then to do it, is just absurd. It’s crazy. Absolutely crazy.”
It’s magical enough to hit a grand slam in October that gives your team a lead. But if you thought that’s all this was, you’re not doing it justice. This was an all-time October long-ball fable. You could come very close, in fact, to making a case that there has just about never been a postseason home run quite like it. That’s because …
It was a grand slam that sent his team to the NLCS. And in the history of postseason baseball, only two other men have ever hit a lead-flipping slam, in the sixth inning or later, in a game that clinched a series for their team. One was Shane Victorino, for the Red Sox, in Game 6 of the 2013 ALCS. The other was Devon White, for the 1997 Marlins, in the game that finished off an NLDS sweep of the Giants.
It was a slam that was responsible for every run his team scored. But here’s what separates Lindor’s slam from all the others. How many men have ever hit a slam like that in a game that clinched a postseason series for the team? The correct answer there would be none, according to STATS Perform.
And it was the first lead-flipping postseason slam in the history of his franchise. This was actually the second late-inning slam in Mets history that gave them a lead in a postseason game. The other was Edgardo Alfonzo’s ninth-inning slam against the Diamondbacks in 1999. But that game was tied at the time. And it came in Game 1 of the Division Series, not the game that ended it. So … advantage Lindor.
But there was more than just a special historic context to this particular home run. It was the emotional context that felt even more powerful. As this baseball soared through the night, it carried the weight of all those years of Mets October angst, then released them in a rumble of cathartic thunder.
How long did Citi Field rattle and hum after this home run landed in the Phillies’ bullpen in deep right-center? Five minutes? Ten? Twenty? Or is it still rattling? It was one of those rare sporting moments that allows you to tell people you didn’t just watch it. You felt it.
Francisco Lindor slams the door shut on the Phillies and sends the Mets to the NLCS. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)
Mets reliever Ryne Stanek was hanging out in his own bullpen when the baseball left Lindor’s launch pad. And as Stanek wriggled his neck to try to keep track of it, he was suddenly gripped by that breathtaking sensation humans have when it hits them what they’re witnessing.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s gone,’” Stanek said. “And it was amazing.”
Sit back and listen to him tell the story of the joy this flying baseball unleashed in the Mets’ bullpen, even among men who play the game for a living.
“It’s just pure emotion,” he said. “Nothing else. Like no other thought can cross your mind other than: What just happened? Like, there’s no concern about anything else. You just see the ball going and finally, you can see the ball go across the fence. And everybody’s like, ‘Holy (bleep), that just happened.’ And it was unbelievable.
“It was absolutely incredible. That moment where everybody just lost it in the bullpen, and we were just a bunch of 5-year-olds. It almost brings you back to being a fan again. Like you’re not just watching it. You’re living the moment. So nobody was worried about, oh, I have to (warm up) for the next inning, or anything else. It was just pure joy — people just running around, not knowing exactly what to do, just losing it.”
And they weren’t alone.
“I felt like Ricky Bobby,” said Pete Alonso, always there when you need a good Will Ferrell “Talladega Nights” reference. “My hands were just, like, in the air, just in awe. Just an unbelievable swing. I mean, that was the swing of a lifetime.”
Francisco Lindor and his Mets teammates celebrate an OMG moment they’ll never forget. (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
No doubt these guys would have felt that no matter who hit it. But this wasn’t merely a big home run by the 26th man on the depth chart. This was a blast by a man who has been lifting the Mets up for weeks, for months, with his brand of baseball genius — and whose passion for his sport, his team, and his teammates has swept up everyone around him.
“He’s an MVP,” said outfielder Jesse Winker. “He’s carried us all year. It’s like every time there’s a big home run, he hits it. I don’t know how he stays so calm. He’s the MVP, he really is. I’m so proud of him. I’m so happy for him.”
All right, so Lindor is not going to win that National League MVP award. Shohei Ohtani was probably always going to win it. But Lindor’s September back injury cost him just enough time down the stretch to seal that.
On nights like this, though, does that really even matter anymore? Let’s hit you with a couple of more tidbits on just how special this home run was.
The Mets have been around for 63 seasons. They’ve played nearly 10,000 regular-season games. And in all those years and all those games, only once had they hit a lead-flipping late-inning grand slam even in a regular-season game. Ike Davis hit that one on April 5, 2014, when they were a run down in the ninth to the Reds. But that was in April. This was a clinch night in October.
And this is up there even with October’s storied non-slams. Over the last 10 postseasons, there have been only four other lead-flipping home runs of any size or shape, in the sixth inning or later, that won a series-clinching game for the team that hit it.
Here are those four. You’ll remember them.
• 2019 World Series — Howie Kendrick (Nationals) off Zack Greinke (Astros)
• 2022 NLCS — Bryce Harper (Phillies) off Robert Suarez (Padres)
• 2022 World Series — Yordan Alvarez (Astros) off José Alvarado (Phillies)
• 2024 NLWC — Pete Alonso off Devin Williams (Brewers)
(Source: Baseball Reference / Stathead)
So how about that: Five stunning lead-flippers in a decade … and the Mets have hit two of them in the last week.
Hey, it’s been that kind of year and that kind of October for a team caught up in one of those magic carpet rides that don’t come along very often — especially in Flushing. But just when you think they can’t possibly top the last moment, a baseball goes rocketing through the ozone on an unforgettable Wednesday evening in New York. And everyone who saw it will be talking about it for decades.
“That was such a special moment,” Stanek said, “for a guy that is so special to this team and so special to this city. I mean, that’s how you’d write it if you could write the script. You know what I mean?
“Like, seriously, you have superstars on your team that come up big in situations like that. And that’s why they earned that contract. They come up big in those moments. He’s just an unbelievable player, an unbelievable teammate, an unbelievable leader for us. And I couldn’t be happier for him. We all couldn’t.”
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(Top photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
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