Why Francisco Lindor's big night in blowout win over Marlins was even more meaningful

NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor had a little something extra behind his longest home run as a member of the Mets.

The Mets shortstop got an emotional lift on Friday night as his wife, Katia, surprised him with a visit from his mother, Maria Serrano, and her first trip to Citi Field.

The rare meeting sparked Lindor to his best game of the month as he delivered a massive three-run blast and dazzled defensively to lead the Mets in a 10-4 win over the Marlins in the teams' first matchup of the season at Citi Field.

"It fills my heart. I play the game for my mom and my whole entire family," Lindor said. "To have her here in this moment, it’s a win for me and a win for my whole entire family."

The 440-foot blast was the fourth longest home run of Lindor's career.

Lindor said he had been feeling down in recent days.

He had been struggling through a tough month of June after breaking his middle finger on his right hand before the first game of the team's 10-game road trip against the Dodgers on June 2 . On Thursday, he saw Eduardo Escobar suffer a minor health scare.

But he got pulled aside after the hitter's meeting as Katia gave him a surprise for his second Father's Day. Lindor said that his family had been concerned with Serrano flying after he suffered a head injury in 2020.

"She gets to watch me play as a New York Met in New York," Lindor said. "That, to me, is special."

It was just the spark that Lindor needed.

With his mom in attendance, Lindor provided four more RBI as he jumped over the Phillies' Bryce Harper and Dodgers' Trea Turner into third-place in the National League with 49.

Entering Friday, he had been in a 9-for-52 slump since the injury. He only missed one game but seemed limited with a wrap on his finger. Before the injury, Lindor had provided an RBI in 10 straight games and 20 overall during that stretch as he worked up the National League RBI leaderboard.

It was the Mets' second big performance in a reunion, after Carlos Carrasco, who earned the win on Friday, pitched in front of his father for the first time in his 11-year major league career on June 1.

"Baseball is just a beautiful game. For a lot of people, including us players, there's these extremely special moments that are bigger than the game," Pete Alonso said. "Obviously, like for Francisco and Cookie in these instances, having the ability for family to be there, that's something that most people can kind of take for granted."

The Mets' stars aligned.

Pete Alonso cracked the game open with his second career grand slam in the top of the sixth to make it 10-1 as he jumped into the MLB lead for RBI with 63.

Defensive dynamo

For a while after the injury, it seemed that Lindor was struggling to get a grip on the baseball with his finger wrapped.

Lindor looked like he was back in gold-glove form on Friday night.

"It still hurts, but here I am, man," Lindor said. "God is on my side, for sure. That's all I can ask for. A little bit of health and I'll go out there and grind."

Between the second and third innings, he notched three sterling plays to aid Carrasco.

On the first, he back-handed a ground ball to his right and made a two-skip throw to Alonso across his body.

In the next inning, he snared a slicing line drive from Bryan De La Cruz. And one batter later against the speedy Jazz Chisholm, Lindor was playing on the right side of the infield in a shift and was forced to spin and throw against his momentum for the second out of the frame.

"They're all plays that as a shortstop I want to make and should make, but I don't make them all the time," Lindor said. "I don't make them all the time, so I've got to get better."

Raised by replay

Alonso's bases-loaded pop nearly never happened.

After Jeff McNeil led off the inning with a single and Mark Canha walked, Luis Guillorme lined a shot to left field that got wedged between the wall and Jorge Soler's hand.

As both runners advanced, it was ruled a catch and triple play after the ball was thrown back into the infield. The runners were frozen because of the call.

Replay overruled the call and the carousel began to turn with an RBI single from J.D. Davisd and a bases-loaded walk and hit by pitch to Starling Marte and Lindor, respectively.

"I think they got it right all the way around," Buck Showalter said. "It’s one of those unfortunate plays. Fortunately, we cashed it in. I thought Marte actually had a real key at-bat with a walk and it looked like they were going to get out of it 4-1, and then Pete opened it up."

It set the stage for Alonso's dramatic home run, which was greeted with "MVP" chants and a curtain call.

Alonso became the second fastest player in Major League Baseball history to 125 home runs, hitting the milestone in his 435 games, surpassing Aaron Judge who reached the figure in 447 games.

"He had the ability to see if I was going to chase or see if I was going to come out of myself," Alonso said. "For me, I was just looking for one spot and he just happened to throw it that one pitch"

Tough Cookie

After a tough outing in Anaheim where he gave up five earned runs, including home runs to Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, Carlos Carrasco proved why he leads the Mets in victories.

He scattered seven hits and one walk to limit the Marlins to one run in the first six innings and allow the Mets to build their lead.

Carrasco left the game with one out in the seventh inning after giving up a walk and single to the top of the Marlins' order. He ended up conceding three earned runs while striking out six batters as he secured the victory and improved to 8-2.

"He’s got a lot of pitches at his disposal," Showalter said. "He’s carrying life on his fastball late in innings. He was working with an extra days rest today. He’s been a real shot in the arm in a time of need."

He threw 23 out of 29 first-pitch strikes and continued to fill the strike zone, throwing 70 strikes in 98 pitches.

Andrew Tredinnick is the Mets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Mets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app. 

Email: atredinnick@gannett.com Twitter: @andrew_tred

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Francisco Lindor gets emotional lift from mother, sparks NY Mets to win