Mets’ Francisco Lindor joins 30-30 club for second time with homer against Cubs

CHICAGO (AP) — Francisco Lindor launched a fastball toward the street. And just like that, he was once again in the 30-30 club.

Lindor reached the 30-30 mark for the second time in his career with a long home run, and the New York Mets remained in playoff position by beating the Chicago Cubs 8-5 on Thursday night.

“I’m surrounded by good teammates, surrounded by good hitting coaches,” he said. “They try to find the edge every single day to try to help me be the best version of myself.”

Lindor sure was locked in when he stepped to the plate with the Mets leading 2-0 in the third.

He took a ball and unloaded on the next pitch from Shota Imanaga, sending a solo drive beyond the left-field bleachers to Waveland Avenue, delighting the Mets fans behind the visitors dugout. Lindor raised his right arm as he rounded the bases and pounded his chest three times as he approached home.

That gave him 30 home runs to go with 31 steals. The five-time All-Star had 31 homers and 31 steals for New York in 2023.

With Lindor and Juan Soto (43 homers, 36 steals), the Mets have two 30-30 players in a season for the second time. Howard Johnson (36 homers, 32 steals) and Darryl Strawberry (39 homers, 36 steals) did it in 1987.

New York also has three players with at least 30 home runs for the first time, with Pete Alonso going deep 37 times.

“Soto’s one of the best players in the game — probably top three players in the game,” Lindor said. “To have him on our team is very special, and to see what he has done this year, it’s really cool. And then you have Pete Alonso. Pete’s one of the best power hitters in the game so I’m blessed to be around good teammates, around people that are elite and top of what they do.”

New York was tied for fourth in the majors with 222 homer runs after Thursday’s win. Brett Baty also went deep, and the Mets remained a game ahead of Cincinnati for the final wild card with three to play. The Reds beat Pittsburgh 2-1.

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New York will try to clinch a playoff spot for the third time in four years this weekend in Miami.

“We feel good,” Baty said. “We feel like we just got to go down there and handle business. We can’t think about winning three games because we got to win tomorrow night. We’re going to go down there and we’re going to focus on tomorrow night. We’re going to try to get a W and then see where things are at, and then keep fighting until the end of the season.”

Having two 30-30 players and three with at least 30 homers sure doesn’t hurt.

“That’s not easy to do,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve got elite players. Some of our guys at the top of our lineup — we’ve seen it a whole year. And Lindor today reaching the 30-homer going along with the 30 stolen bases is pretty impressive. It goes to show you the type of players that we got here, and they’ve been carrying us for pretty much a whole year.” ___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB