Francisco Lindor's 250th homer of his career lifts Mets to walk-off win over Cardinals

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Apr 18, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Leave it to Francisco Lindor to play the hero role for the Mets.

After tying the St. Louis Cardinals at 2-2 and 3-3 before taking a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth, the visitors then evened the score at 4-4.

But the bottom of the ninth was quickly wrapped up thanks to Lindor, who hit a walk-off shot off right-hander Ryan Fernandez. Lindor’s 250th home run gave the Mets the win, 5-4. The Mets are now up, 2-0, in the four-game series.

Mark Vientos went 2 for 4 with a home run and a leadoff single in the eighth that resulted in some theatrics. Facing former Mets right-hander Phil Maton, Luisangel Acuña pinch hit for Vientos and stole second. Brandon Nimmo chopped one to the third base side, with Nolan Arenado fielding it a few feet in front of the grass. Arenado looked to first and Acuña broke for third. He beat the tag but over-slid the base, and Arenado got the tag down just in time.

The Mets challenged the call and replays appeared to show Acuña beating the tag with his pinky, but the call was upheld.

Maton then tried to pick off Nimmo at first and threw the ball behind first baseman Willson Contreras. With Nimmo on second, catcher Luis Torrens ripped an RBI double to the left-field corner. It was the sixth double of the season for Torrens. Last year, he hit only eight.

Finally, the Mets had a lead.

However, it wouldn’t last long. Brendan Donovan took Huascar Brazobán deep to right field to lead off the top of the ninth. Brazobán recovered quickly, striking out the next three to set up the walk-off opportunity for Lindor.

After going down 2-0 in the fourth, the Mets came back to tie in the bottom of the fifth. Brett Baty led off with a double and Tyrone Taylor tripled to cut the score to 2-1. Juan Soto scored Taylor with a seeing-eye single off Miles Mikolas.

The right-hander held the Mets scoreless through the first four innings. He lasted one more hitter, being removed from the game after Pete Alonso reached on a fielder’s choice, finished with two runs on five hits, two walks and one strikeout.

Left-hander David Peterson didn’t have his best stuff, turning in an up-and-down outing. He scattered three runs over 5 1/3 innings, alternating between efficient innings and long ones until he was removed in the sixth with the Mets down 3-2.

A leadoff double by Contreras and an RBI single by Arenado broke the 2-2 tie. Peterson got the first out, ending his night with seven hits and 10 strikeouts. Right-hander Max Kranick came in with a runner on second and stranded him.

But then Vientos led off the bottom of the sixth with a bomb to left, tying things up for the Mets once again. Right-hander Kyle Leahy started the inning, taking over for left-hander John King. He threw eight pitches to Vientos before going upstairs with his fastball, leaving it about chest high.

Vientos connected with it, sending it 371 feet over the left-field fence.