Francisco Lindor hit his 300th career home run Sunday, a second-inning shot in the Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Nationals in Washington.
The Mets shortstop had been stuck on 299 since Sept. 12, when he hit two homers against the Yankees, and said he went into Sunday’s game determined to finish the chase before the season ended.
“I wasn’t trying [to homer] the past couple of days, I was just trying to have good at-bats,” Lindor said. “And then today I said, ‘I am going to try to hit a home run.’ It doesn’t work out that way all the time, but today it did. Some way it worked out, so it’s not something I am going to take into next year.”
Lindor missed two months this season with a calf strain and finished with 21 homers and a .732 OPS.
“To hit 300 [homers] you have got to be healthy for a long time,” Lindor said. “The trainers here, in Cleveland, my people, have helped me a lot to stay on the field. It seems like it’s a day for me, but it’s for all these people that wish me to be better day in and day out that made me better.”
Manaea Closes Rocky Season
Starter Sean Manaea allowed five earned runs on seven hits and a walk over six innings, ending his season with a 4.78 ERA. Manaea said he plans to work on building fastball velocity over the offseason.
“At least having that for spring training, at least from the [start] and then my breaking ball,” Manaea said.
Manaea had shown signs of turning his season around at the midpoint after a difficult start, but finished with a 6.35 ERA over his last seven starts.
“I would say [this season] was a disappointment — we didn’t as a team do what we needed to do,” Manaea said. “I personally didn’t need to do what I needed to do. There were flashes of some really good times. There was also a lot of negative things. Overall, I would say it was a disappointment.”
Other Notes
Carson Benge went 3-for-5, his third straight multihit game, and batted .462 over his final 10 games of the season. Ronny Mauricio hit his third home run in two days to close out his season.
