Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor had his finest game since arriving in New York over the offseason on Saturday, homering twice as part of a three-hit, five-RBI effort in the first game of a doubleheader versus the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.
Lindor, who entered the afternoon hitting .209/.308/.333 (82 OPS+) with six home runs on the season, put the Mets on the board with a two-run shot in the first inning. The ball left his bat traveling 101.8 mph and carried some 384 feet, per Statcast. Take a look:
Lindor drove in another run in the third, this time on a single, to make it 3-0 New York. He then hit another two-run homer in the fifth to give the Mets what proved to be an insurmountable 5-0 lead. The Nationals did get a run back of their own on a Juan Soto single in the bottom half of the fifth.
Lindor's second home run registered an exit velocity of 110.9 mph and a projected distance of 414 feet. Those numbers are, again, courtesy of Statcast.
Saturday's game marked the 12th time in Lindor's career he had homered multiple times in a single contest. It was the first time he'd done so as a member of the Mets. Additionally, Lindor's five runs batted in tied for the second-most he's notched in his career, behind only a seven-RBI outing in 2018. He had previously not driven in more than two runs in a game since joining the Mets in an offseason trade.
While Lindor's overall numbers are well below his norms, he appears to be heating up. Including Saturday, he's now hitting .274/.366/.548 with four home runs in 71 plate appearances. Lindor's awakening is also apparent in his ball-tracking metrics: his average exit velocity in June (92.3 mph) is well above his previous monthly high (87.8 mph) this season.
