Worldwide Sports News

Mark Vientos saw the stop sign. He admitted as much later, though, to hear him discuss the sixth-inning play on which he was thrown out at home by several feet in a tie game, the fact that he saw third base coach Tim Leiper hold his hands up did not strike Vientos as an admission at all.

“I was just following my instincts. Once I saw [Marcus Semien’s double] was hit off the wall, I was like, I’m gonna go score on that,” Vientos said. “Leip gave me the stop sign, but I followed my instincts and went home.”

As it happened, Vientos’ instincts did not doom the Mets, in large part because with runners on first and second and two out in the eighth, he wrestled an inside pitch into short right field to score Brett Baty with the eventual winning run.

“I’m glad he got that hit and redeemed himself,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said with a chuckle that felt appropriately nervous, given that Vientos made clear he would probably make the same choice again.

“Obviously, depending on the situation, we want to make the right play. But I’m always going to be aggressive. I’m not going to play passive on the baseball field,” Vientos said. “I’d rather make a mistake aggressive than passive.”

In some ways, the 2026 New York Mets are an example of that same philosophy: If the 2025 team sputtered out with the same old names, David Stearns was determined not to replicate last year’s failures this year. What the Mets must discern – now that their shoulders are free of that unfathomable losing streak -- is what parts of their current roster might eventually look like aggressive mistakes.

Wednesday night’s win did not happen because the Mets made drastic changes. Juan Soto’s return certainly helped, though it was quickly undermined by the departure of Francisco Lindor, who appeared to suffer nearly the same injury that sidelined Soto while scoring in the fourth.

It happened because the Mets, led by their manager, emphasized the need to trust track records as the present spiraled.

“You feel like you’re doing the right things. You evaluate things. You look around. People are doing what you should be doing,” Clay Holmes said after throwing seven strong innings. “You kind of really want to reach for something to do, but you’re already doing those things. Sometimes, that can be a little harder. You have to double down on the belief in yourself.”

Holmes, for example, tripled down on his sinker Wednesday, using it 73 percent of the time – almost as he might have in his days as a reliever. The righty is pitching to a 2.10 ERA in five starts this season.

But no one has been more stubborn than the Mets lineup, which has changed in terms of personnel even as it has committed to being aggressive through its slump. Mendoza said Wednesday that even though his lineup compiled the lowest on-base percentage in baseball, he was not clamoring for patience.

“It’s hard to get behind in counts here,” Mendoza said. “You have to be able to stay on the attack with good pitches in the strike zone.”

Quite obviously, little has changed because the Mets won Wednesday’s game 3-2. They still have the worst on-base percentage in baseball. Only two teams are swinging more frequently than they are. Only three are swinging at a higher percentage of pitches out of the zone. But last year’s team was baseball’s fifth-most patient and look where that got them. This year’s team will not make the same mistake.

Exactly what mistakes it will make now, after the baseball gods finally permitted them a win, remains to be seen. If Lindor is out for a significant period – and it is important to remember that Soto received what was considered a best-case diagnosis for a calf-related injury and still missed nearly three weeks – the Mets will have to wait even longer to see what the intended version of their lineup can produce.

But in the meantime, they will cross their fingers that Bichette can swing his way into a hot streak, that Vientos can turn a bloop into an offensive blaze, that two walks from Baty on Wednesday mean he is seeing the ball better…that everyone keeps doing what they would normally be doing in the hopes that better results must somehow follow.

“You have to stay positive. You can’t come to the ballpark expecting the worst, even if you’re going through a very rough stretch,” Mendoza said. “You come to the ballpark expecting good things to happen. And yes, it doesn’t matter how hard it is and how things are unfolding. Your mindset has to be expect something good to happen for us.”

No one should expect anything less than good things from the Mets, in whom Steve Cohen invested roughly $380 million this year. But when he chatted with reporters this week, he was careful to describe himself as “calm but concerned” in the only on-the-record comments he would offer, wary not to seem too worried nor too relaxed.

His roster is set. This team is in place. If a 12-game losing streak in April would be interpreted by some as a stop sign for championship dreams, the Mets seem resigned to ignore it. They are trusting their instincts, and those instincts are telling veteran members of their clubhouse that they are better than they have shown -- or at least, that if they are not as good as some believed, their best chance is to run past the red flags anyway.

On Tuesday, we talked about Cainings. The San Francisco Giants introduced Los Angeles Dodgers ace and international superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the concept, with the most common type of Caining in existence. Call it the Standard Caining. In the Standard Caining, a pitcher has a very good game, but their offense doesn’t do enough. Because they had merely a very good game, rather than a great one, they’re rudely handed a loss when their incompetent offense fails to do their job.

Matt Cain, to pick a random name to use as an example, received a losing decision on 26 different occasions in which he pitched at least six innings while allowing two or fewer earned runs. Yamamoto’s impersonation was quite admirable, as the reigning World Series MVP pitched seven mostly-dominant innings but, thanks to a three-run first and a lifeless offense, received a notch in the L column.

Today, we talk about a less common variant of the Caining, one that the Giants introduced to Dodgers ace and international superstar Shohei Ohtani. Let’s call it an Advanced Caining. In the Advanced Caining, a pitcher goes above and beyond with not just a good game, but a great one. But the offense is, once again, inept. And eventually, the pitcher is forced to leave the game, leaving a bullpen to wear the blame when the magic runs out.

Matt Cain, to once again pick a random and arbitrary name to use as an example, had 17 different instances in which he pitched six or more innings, gave up zero or one runs, handed the bullpen a tie or a lead, and then watched, arms dangled over the railing, as the bullpen lost the game, and the offense did nothing to keep that outcome from occurring.

Ohtani now is intimately acquainted with an Advanced Caining which, admittedly, has an added flair to it when the pitcher getting Advanced Cained is also the designated hitter anchoring the offense doing the Advanced Caining. It’s a vicious cycle being both the Cainer and the Cainee. You’re not sure whether to feel victimized or guilty.

The two-way sensation had a game that, Giants fans will be loathe to admit, lived up to the hype. He struck out the side in the first inning, albeit working around two singles. He set down the side in order in the second, and then again in the third, and then once more for old time’s sake in the fourth. He cruised through the fifth.

It wasn’t until the sixth inning that Ohtani appeared to be in any sort of danger, and even then he dismissed of it easily. The Giants waited until there were two outs to try any sort of shenanigans, with Matt Chapman reaching on an infield single, and Rafael Devers smacking a double, his second hit of the day.

But Ohtani, still hitting triple digits even as his night neared an end, overpowered Casey Schmitt and ended the inning with emphasis.

It was his seventh strikeout of the game, which paired well with his zero walks. He’d thrown 23 pitches in excess of 99 mph. He’d given up just five hits. He hadn’t allowed a runner to score, earned or otherwise.

And none of it mattered. Because the Dodgers bullpen couldn’t maintain what he had accomplished. Because the Dodgers offense couldn’t match what he had thrown.

Because Tyler Mahle pitched better than Shohei Ohtani.

Because Patrick Bailey hit better than Shohei Ohtani.

A Caining requires a worthy adversary on the mound, and the Giants — despite what you would think entering the series — have provided that worthy adversary, first in the form of Landen Roupp, and next in the form of Mahle.

Mahle was excellent on Wednesday. He was beyond excellent. He was so good that someone in the comment section will be mad at me for mentioning Ohtani’s name five times before ever getting to Mahle’s, and that person will be right.

The veteran, whose debut season with the Giants had been a debacle prior to this game, not only matched Ohtani, but surpassed him. He threw the same number of pitches (91) as his opponent, but made it through seven innings, instead of six. He gave up the same number of baserunners (five), but none of them were extra-base hits. He faced a runner in scoring position in just two innings, and one was because Drew Gilbert took a truly atrocious route to a routine fly ball and instead let it fall for a single.

He had his help, mind you: Devers, Willy Adames, and Luis Arráez in particular had some standout defensive plays to keep the outs coming. But all great performances require a supporting cast, and Mahle’s showing was exactly that: greatness, with a fantastic supporting cast. And when you do that against the Dodgers, you earn some fans.

See, here’s Adames proving my point:

And here’s Arráez proving my point:

And ahh, what the hell, here’s Devers proving my point:

Pretty, ain’t it?

And so, as Mahle walked off the mound for the final time, as fans stretched and sang, we had been treated to two of the three components of the Advanced Caining: a great performance by a pitcher (Ohtani), and a great performance by an opposing pitcher (Mahle) in response.

All that was left was the third and final component: an offense eager to face anyone other than the star pitcher, and a bullpen prepared to waste a great start. And if it wasn’t clear to you until now, that offense was the Giants’, and that bullpen was the Dodgers’.

Southpaw Jack Dreyer replaced Ohtani, taking the mound for the bottom of the seventh inning in a scoreless game.

After two pitches, Jung Hoo Lee — who is not just heating up, but quietly starting to look a lot better against lefties — had started a rally with a leadoff single.

After two more pitches, Heliot Ramos — who, it seems, is fully back — knocked his second single of the day, putting runners at first and second with no outs.

Gilbert came to bat, and Bailey came onto the on-deck circle. As the camera cut to Bailey in-between pitches, you could see him look back at the dugout. You imagined he was wondering if his game would continue or not.

With Daniel Susac on the Injured List, pinch-hitting for Bailey is less straightforward, but I assumed the situation was simple: should Gilbert advance the runners, Bailey — who, despite being mired in the slump of all slumps, is reliably putting the ball in play and not striking out — would hit. Should Gilbert leave the runners where they are, Jerar Encarnación, with his high power but higher strikeouts, would enter the game.

Thankfully for Bailey, Gilbert did his part, laying down a smooth bunt that easily advanced Ramos to second and Lee to third. And with that, Bailey stepped to the plate, needing to just put the ball relatively halfway deep into the outfield to give the Giants the lead.

He took a first pitch slider for a strike, then watched as Dreyer spiked one in the dirt. A slider found the plate, and Bailey fouled it off. A second slider found the plate, and Bailey again fouled it off.

A third slider found the plate, and Bailey launched it into the bleachers.

It was a healing swing of the bat for someone who entered the game with zero extra-base hits, one run batted in, and three million calls to KNBR complaining about his lack of offense. A swing of the bat that reminded himself, his teammates, and his fans that he’s a better hitter than what we’ve seen over the first month of the season.

With a lead secured, the only thing left to do to complete the Advance Caining was to have the winning bullpen learn from the losing bullpen’s failures. And so Caleb Kilian took the mound for the eighth inning and worked around a leadoff single, retiring Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, and Will Smith. And Ryan Walker jogged out for the ninth, looking for his second dramatic save in as many days.

Walker got Freddie Freeman to fly the ball lazily to left for the first out. He got Teoscar Hernández to lift one to center, where it fell into Gilbert’s glove for the second out. He walked Max Muncy on four pitches, because why not.

And then, always with a love of theatrics and style points, Walker induced a weak chopper from Andy Pages, and played his own defensive hero for the third — and 27th — out.

Despite what the media may lead you to believe, Shohei Ohtani is not the only baseball player on the planet. There are other players, you know. Numerous others, if you can believe it. Players like Tyler Mahle. Players like Patrick Bailey. Players like Ryan Walker.

And those players won, 3-0.

Plenty of power. Not nearly enough pitching. That’s the story.

The White Sox jumped out exactly how you’d want them to do. Back-to-back singles from Chase Meidroth and Miguel Vargas in the top of the first set the tone, and even after Munetaka Murakami went down looking, the pressure didn’t let up. Everson Pereira and Edgar Quero worked consecutive walks to push across the first run, and Colson Montgomery followed with a productive at-bat. It wasn’t a hit thanks to a stellar play by Ketel Marte, but it plated Vargas for his 17th RBI of the season. Two runs without a ball leaving the yard. Sox up 2-0.

Montgomery flashed the glove in the bottom half, too, making a clean play on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. grounder to strand a Geraldo Perdomo triple and keep Anthony Kay out of immediate trouble. It was a reminder of just how steady he’s been defensively, already sitting near the top of the league in Outs Above Average amongst shortstops alongside names like Bobby Witt Jr. and Masyn Winn.

That was about where the control ended.

Kay never really found the zone, and the second inning unraveled quickly. A leadoff walk followed by a single set the table, and after another deep count, Arizona pounced. Ildemaro Vargas turned a 2-0 pitch into a three-run homer, flipping the game in one swing. The damage didn’t stop there, with a double, an RBI single from Corbin Carroll, and a run-scoring bunt by Perdomo stretched the lead and completely sucked the air out of Chicago’s early momentum.

To their credit, though, the bats kept swinging. Our Vargas continued his power surge in the third, launching a 428-foot homer for his third straight game, going deep.

But every answer the Sox had, the Diamondbacks matched and exceeded. Another blast from Arizona pushed the lead right back out, and while Eduardo Rodríguez had his moments of vulnerability, the Sox couldn’t fully capitalize.

Montgomery did his part, though. The shortstop stayed scorching hot in the fourth, crushing a 423-foot homer to right-center. It was his fourth straight game leaving the yard as he cut the deficit to 6-4, briefly making it feel like a game again.

Then came more pitching problems. Kay’s night effectively ended in the bottom of the fourth after a sequence that summed up his outing: a single, chaos on the bases from Carroll, and a balk that brought home a run. Jordan Hicks didn’t stop the bleeding, walking José Fernández and surrendering an RBI knock to Nolan Arenado to make it 8-4.

The Sox had chances, but they just couldn’t string enough together. Back-to-back singles from Murakami and Pereira in the fifth went nowhere. A manufactured run in the sixth, sparked by a Tristian Peters pinch-hit triple, and an Andrew Benintendi ground out, chipped into the lead slightly. But the South Side hurlers immediately gave back every inch gained.

Lucas Sims entered in the sixth and promptly allowed a two-run homer to Arenado. Sean Newcomb followed in the seventh and gave up back-to-back triples to Carroll and Perdomo.

The highlight, though, was another ridiculous showing from Murakami. The rookie crushed a 451-foot two-run homer in the seventh — his fifth straight game going deep, tying a franchise record — and later added a single in the ninth. He now sits at 10 home runs on the season and looks every bit like the real deal. Extend him NOW!

Unfortunately, in the end, it didn’t matter.

Down multiple runs all night, the Sox never fully threatened late. A small flicker in the ninth with Murakami reaching and Quero walking, bringing Montgomery to the plate with a chance to make it interesting. Instead, a 368-foot flyout to the warning track ended it.

The offense showed up. The power is real. There’s legitimate life in this lineup right now.

The pitching? That’s a different conversation entirely, and until it changes, games like this are going to keep slipping away.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spoke about different aspects of the team snapping their 12-game losing streak after their 3-2 win over the Twins

Juan Soto's first game back

The Mets' lineup got a massive boost on Wednesday. They activated Soto from the IL and inserted him in the two-hole as the DH. 

He finished 1-for-3 with a walk, but the at-bats were Soto-like. 

In his first AB, he launched a 96 mph fastball to deep center field. It sounded good off the bat -- after replay, it seemed he got just under it -- and went just 387 feet, but he was on top of the fastball. His second at-bat saw him hit a sharp liner to right field that went off his bat at 104.3 mph. Two at-bats, two loud outs. He'd take a walk on six pitches in the fifth inning, and then led off the eighth with a single. 

"That ball, that first at-bat, was going to be gone. During the summer, I think that’s out of here," Mendoza said of Soto's at-bats. "The quality overall, he looked really good."

Soto would get picked off at first in the eighth, but as the Mets skipper said, Soto didn't look rusty at the plate. 

Clay Holmes provides another quality start

Lost in the victory was how good Holmes was for the Mets.

The right-hander allowed just two runs across seven strong innings, giving his team a chance to win on Wednesday night.

“He was very good tonight,” Mendoza said. “That sinker put them on the ground, kept getting ground balls. He was pitch efficient, you look up and he got strike one, kept attacking, gave us seven innings and a pretty solid outing by him.”

For the Mets, the win to snap the losing streak was important, even if Holmes got a no-decision. But the Mets starter is relieved, like the rest of the locker room, that they got over the hump.

"Winning's fun," Holmes said. "There was a tough stretch there. It's a crazy thing. Things start spinning, and there's a lot going on. Just to feel a win again and see everyone smiling. It's a good feeling.

“It’s not easy losing games, especially when you get that type of starting pitching, which we had, but good teams find a way to win games like that," Mendoza said. "I’m confident that we will start doing that here pretty soon, especially with the way our starters are continuing to throw the baseball. But it was good to have that one today.”

In five starts this season, Holmes has not allowed more than two runs and has gone seven innings twice. His ERA now sits at 2.10.

Shortstop options without Francisco Lindor?

Aside from the win, the news from the game was that Lindor exited with calf tightness. Although Lindor will undergo an MRI on Thursday before a decision on his availability is made, it seems the Mets are preparing to lose their shortstop for some time.

Bo Bichette moved over to shortstop with Lindor out, and that's the first-year Mets' natural position. Mendoza was asked whether Bichette will be the shortstop without Lindor, and the Mets skipper wouldn't commit to it, but it's more probable that they'll keep Bichette at third base and call someone up.

"We’ll see. Again, we gotta wait and see what we got with Lindor. If it’s an IL, we’ll make a move," Mendoza explained. "Who that person will be? I have to talk to David [Stearns] to see what we got with Lindor, then we’ll go from there. I won’t hesitate if I need to play Bo there, but I think we’ll bring someone here that is capable of playing the position as well."

Mendoza has experimented with different lineups in recent weeks and Wednesday saw Bichette hit leadoff. He was asked if we should expect a similar lineup -- without Lindor, of course -- Thursday and Mendoza said there are factors that determine it like the pitcher they are facing and the state of the opponent's bullpen, but he'll continue to experiment.

"I’m going to have to get creative," he said. " I want consistency when everyone’s healthy. Right now, we can call it like that. I like Bo anywhere, and if I like Bo hitting there, I will."

Mets fans rejoicing at the Amazin’s snapping their 12-game losing streak didn’t get much time to celebrate before the dread over the Curse of the Mambino came creeping back with a three-letter X post.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted “LGM” on X after the Mets beat the Twins at Citi Field Wednesday night, spooking scores of superstitious fans concerned Hizzoner would again jinx the baseball team with his praise.

The team lost 12 consecutive games after Mamdani hugged mascots Mr. and Mrs. Met on April 9 — finally breaking the unlucky streak with Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Twins.

“Couldn’t just let it go….. Had to say something??? Now Mets going to lose another 12,” one user commented in response to the mayor’s post.

“Go root for the Yankees. You have done enough damage already,” another said.

“Please don’t jinx the Mets again,” another commenter wrote.

“Bro, even I feel bad for the mets please stop,” a user with a Yankee logo as their profile photo commented.

LGM https://t.co/pfPvwwJOrb

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) April 23, 2026

“Read the room… shut up!!!” another begged.

Mamdani appeared to embrace the nickname “Mayor Mambino” during an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, as he hoped the team would lose the bad juju.

“There’s a lot of baseball to be played,” Hizzoner said when asked by a reporter about the alleged curse. “I’m still keeping the faith as I know that many Mets fans are across the city.”

Things got so bleak that a Voodoo King went to Citi Field Tuesday to try to undo the Curse of the Mambino — with black magic and a goat’s head.

“I’m removing Mayor Mamdani’s malevolent witchcraft. I’m getting his name, date of birth, things like that, and getting the curse he placed on the team when he hugged the mascot away from the team,” Michael Washington, aka Tata Tilk, told The Post.

“I’m going to do a full reversal and send it back to the witches and wizards that sent it, because it was more than one person that actually did the affliction on the team,” he added.

Clad in a black cloak, Washington used his cauldron and talismans — a goat skull, human bones, lightning-struck rocks and meteorites that he mixed with dirt from the Citi Field flower beds — before breaking into an incantation.

Sadly, the voodoo was a no-go Tuesday, when the Mets lost to the Twins 5-3 after blowing their lead.

Though they did snap the streak before hitting unlucky No. 13 the following night, bad luck still ensued, as Francisco Lindor left the game in the top of the fifth due to tightness in his left calf.

PHOENIX — Munetaka Murakami is hitting home runs at a pace no Chicago White Sox player has before.

He not only homered in his fifth consecutive game Wednesday night, equaling a White Sox record, but also reached 10 homers in just 24 games, the quickest by a White Sox player in franchise history. It ties the fourth-quickest by any player in MLB history in their first 24 career games.

“I mean, it’s unbelievable what he’s doing,’’ White Sox infielder Miguel Vargas said, “it’s unbelievable to watch.’’

Murakami set the franchise record with a 451-foot blast over the center-field fence off Ryan Thompson, with the crowd of 20,799 at Chase Field in awe of the majestic shot.

“I’m really happy that I have the record,’’ Murakami, 26, who has the longest homer streak by a Japanese-born player in history, said. “My swing is pretty good overall. It’s still early in the season, so I still have to keep adjustment to the pitchers, but right now, I’m sitting really well at the moment.’’

Munetaka Murakami STAYS HOT 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dmbRzIcoaD

— MLB (@MLB) April 23, 2026

When asked what it’s like to have even more homers than three-time MVP Aaron Judge, Murakami says he shouldn’t be compared to any power hitter at this stage of his career.

“I’m not the caliber of a player who should be compared to Aaron Judge,’’ Murakami said. “I’ve got to stay humble and keep doing what I’m doing right now.’’

And while any team could have had Murakami, with the White Sox winning the sweepstakes with their modest two-year, $34 million offer, Murakami says he’s thrilled to be in Chicago’s South Side.

“I love the team very much,’’ he said. “All my teammates are very open to communication. They are really just good teammates overall. Staff, coaches, I love them very much.’’

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s on-base streak came to an end against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, April 22.

Ohtani finished the game going 0-for-4 in the 3-0 loss to the Giants. He also served as the Dodgers' starting pitcher for the game, striking out seven and allowing five hits in six innings pitched.

Ohtani had reached a base (by either a hit or a walk) in 53 consecutive games dating to Aug. 24, 2025.

Ohtani hit an infield single in the seventh inning against the Giants on Tuesday, April 21, extending the streak and tying Shawn Green (2000) for the longest streak in Dodgers' history.

It wasn’t a statement win, to be sure. It wasn’t a win that said the 12-game losing streak had been some weird, early-season fluke.

But on this night, any win was going to feel practically life-changing for the Mets, lifting the weight of the world off their shoulders.

“It’s a sigh of relief,” was the way Luke Weaver put it, after getting the last four outs of the 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night at Citi Field.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go on and win 50 straight games, but it allows us to just go out and play and not worry about trying to end the streak. It was going to take a win like this to get us going.”

By that, he meant a nail-biter, a game that saw the Mets lose leads of 1-0 and 2-1, as everyone in the ballpark seemed to brace for another cruel ending. All the more so when Mark Vientos, one of the slowest runners in baseball, purposefully ran through a stop sign trying to force the action with the game tied 2-2, only to be thrown out by 10 feet.

Yep, they were going to lose again. Why would this night be any different? The Mets hadn’t won since April 7, for crying out loud.

So when they didn’t lose, when they finally did find a way to win, with Weaver getting a huge out in the eighth with the bases loaded and then closing out the ninth, and Vientos redeeming himself with a bloop go-ahead single, you could feel a certain lightness in the clubhouse.

Not celebratory to be sure. But the relief was palpable. Players were quick to smile and exchange a bit of humor.

“I warmed them up for you,” Weaver said with a laugh to Clay Holmes, speaking of the media group waiting for the starting pitcher.

Yet it was all very self-contained, perhaps because the Mets really do believe they are much better than all of this, scratching and clawing to score runs and find a way to win just one ballgame.

Or perhaps too because it was impossible to ignore the reality that they likely lost Francisco Lindor for a significant length of time with a calf injury on the same night that Juan Soto returned from a three-week absence with the same injury.

If that represents symmetry for the 2026 Mets, this season might just be as doomed as it felt while the 12-game losing streak dragged on into historic territory.

In any case, this new reality seemed to weigh especially heavily on Carlos Mendoza. It’s clear he fears Lindor could be out at least as long as Soto, and perhaps longer, depending on what an MRI on Thursday reveals.

“We got relatively good news with Soto and it was still three weeks,” Mendoza said after the game. “It’s what we’re dealing with right now. We lost Soto and we had a hard time. We’re going to have to find a way.”

Mendoza said he knew it was bad as soon as he saw Lindor slow up going around third, as he scored from first on Francisco Alvarez’s double to right-center, injuring the calf along the way.

“Then I could see the look on his face, walking to the dugout,” Mendoza said. “Then he had to come out of the game.”

Lindor, of course, rather famously wants to play every day through anything, whether it’s a broken toe, a broken finger, or the birth of a child, none of which has kept him from his shortstop position.

The worst news for the Mets, of course, is that Lindor was finally starting to heat up at the plate after one of his notoriously cold starts to a season.

He had the three-run home run on Tuesday, two hits on Wednesday, and nine hits in his last seven games.

Even more to the point, there’s no getting around the fact that as Lindor goes, so go the Mets. It has been that way year after year: they win when he hits, they lose when he doesn’t.

He’s always had that impact, going back to his days in Cleveland. For his career, spanning 10 seasons for the Guardians and Mets, Lindor has put up a .950 OPS in games his team has won, as opposed to .638 in losses. In wins, he’s hit .316, in losses, .216.

Those numbers have been even more dramatic with the Mets. Last season, he had a .999 OPS in games the Mets won, compared to .610 in losses. In wins, he hit .333, in losses, .196.

And in 2024, the season in which Lindor carried the Mets to the postseason, making a run at the MVP Award, his OPS in wins was 1.084, compared to .543 in losses.

Mendoza knows all of that. He knows that even with Soto back, the Mets are going to feel the loss of Lindor at a time when they need to make a run to have any hope of getting back into contention in the coming weeks and months.

As it was, he could only smile wryly when asked after the game if he expected to come back with the same new-look lineup he used on Wednesday, with Bo Bichette leading off the Lindor in the clean-up spot.

“Well, we probably won’t have Lindor,” he said. “So I’m probably going to have to get creative.”

It’s been that kind of season for the Mets. The losing streak was over. And yet you knew the manager wasn’t going to sleep well. Again.