Francisco Lindor is going through it right now.
The Mets’ All-Star has been struck in a brutal slump at the plate for about two months now, and on Saturday night those struggles spilled over to the field.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the second, Frankie Montas was able to get Brewers infielder Joey Ortiz to ground into what appeared to be an inning ender.
However, Lindor was unable to come up with the high-hopping chopper up the middle and it bounced past him into center for a two-run knock.
Montas luckily escaped without further damage on his ledger, but it was a bad break for a starter who has been struggling mightily since making his season debut.
“I wasn’t able to help Montas that inning,” Lindor said. “He executed, got us the pitch we needed to get out of that inning without damage against — it’s a routine groundball and should have been made. Montas is a guy going through it and I wanted to be there for him in that moment.”
Frustration finally boiled over for the usually calm and collected Lindor, as cameras caught him slamming his glove after making his way back to the dugout in between innings.
“I take a lot of pride in my defense,” the usually sure-handed shortstop said. “The pitchers work as hard as they can, they execute the pitch and if there’s a groundball to me it’s up to me to be able to finish the play for them.
“I think that’s the frustrating part of this — every year there’s a moment where I vent out like that, just this time it was right there in the dugout. I have to be better. I have to pick up my teammates and be there for them, I just have to be better.”
The Mets certainly do need Lindor to be better as they look to claw out of this brutally tough stretch.
Even after dropping the first two games in Milwaukee, New York still holds the third NL Wild Card spot, but they have one of the worst records in all of baseball since the beginning of June.
With three straight hitless showings, Lindor is hitting just .208 with a .641 OPS over that span.
If they want to turn things around down the stretch, they'll need their star shortstop to get himself going again.
