NEW YORK — With his No. 1 fan in the house, Francisco Lindor put on a show.
Lindor’s mom, Maria Serrano, watched him play at Citi Field for the first time since he signed with the Mets last year. And, in his first at-bat of the night, Lindor belted a three-run home run to straightaway center field, just a few feet west of the Home Run Apple. Lindor let out a roar as he rounded first base, then pointed to his family’s suite, positioned just behind home plate, when he crossed the dish.
The shortstop’s 10th home run of the year sparked a big offensive night for the Mets in their 10-4 win over the Marlins on Friday at Citi Field. The Mets exploded for a seven-run rally in the sixth inning, punctuated by Pete Alonso’s grand slam. Carlos Carrasco was strong through 6 1/3 innings and 98 pitches.
Lindor’s wife, Katia, set up the surprise for his mom to visit New York during Father’s Day weekend. When Lindor was summoned into the press conference room hours before first pitch on Friday, he had no idea his mom would be there. Serrano lives in Florida, while other family members also visited Lindor from Puerto Rico on Friday.
The Mets’ $341 million man padded his offensive numbers with his mom in town. Lindor’s 49 RBIs on the season lead all shortstops, and he’s three RBIs shy of tying Asdrubal Cabrera for the most RBIs by a Mets shortstop in the first half of a season.
For good measure, Lindor also flashed the leather on a couple of terrific plays in the dirt. Since the start of the 2020 season, Lindor leads all shortstops with 30 Outs Above Average (OAA). For infielders, OAA measures how far the fielder has to go to reach the ball, how much time he has to get there, and how far he then is from the base that the runner is going toward. Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed is second with 29 OAA, Carlos Correa is seventh with 13 OAA, and Javier Baez is eighth with 11 OAA, to name a few other shortstops in that span.
The Mets’ sixth-inning rally began when Marlins starter Pablo Sanchez gave up a single to Jeff McNeil and hit Mark Canha with a pitch. Then Luis Guillorme crushed a 401-foot single to left-center that was originally called a caught fly ball by center fielder Bryan De La Cruz. If the call stood, the Mets would’ve been caught in a triple play because Canha and McNeil had already advanced to second and third, respectively. But after a Mets challenge, the call was overturned and the bases were loaded for J.D. Davis, who collected an RBI single and pushed the rally in motion.
After Starling Marte walked and Lindor was hit by a pitch, Alonso mashed his second career grand slam 368 feet to left-center. Alonso’s 19th home run of the season gave him the National League lead. With the grand slam, the Mets first baseman also became the second-fastest to eclipse 125 career home runs in MLB history, doing so in 435 games. Ryan Howard is first, achieving 125 homers in 405 games. Aaron Judge was knocked down to third; the Yankees outfielder reached that home run mark in 447 games.
