Mets’ Francisco Lindor hearing MVP chants after big doubleheader

A flailing Francisco Lindor didn’t record his ninth RBI until May 21 one year ago, in his 38th appearance of a trying first season with the Mets.

The $341 million shortstop already has reached that figure with two more productive games Tuesday in the Mets’ doubleheader sweep of the Giants at Citi Field.

After notching the tying and game-winning hits in a 5-4 win in 10 innings in the opener, Lindor rapped a single and a double in a 3-1 victory in the nightcap to help the first-place Mets improve their record to 9-3.

The blue-haired Lindor was booed during his early-season slump last year, but he even heard some MVP chants from the home crowd during the second game after being mobbed on the infield by his teammates at the conclusion of Game 1.

“Pretty cool, feels good, whenever you’re in the position that everybody’s running to you, it feels special. It feels good to turn around and see everybody coming,” said Lindor, who finished the day 4-for-9 with two RBIs, two doubles, two runs scored and one stolen base. “I’m in a good spot right now. I’m just focused on winning and doing whatever it takes to win.”

Before his game-winning hit, Lindor nearly put the Mets in a 10th-inning deficit with a wide throw that initially appeared to pull first baseman Pete Alonso off the bag. Buck Showalter challenged the play, however, and a video review determined that Alonso kept his foot in place to record the third out of the inning.

Lindor’s single against Jarlin Garcia to score automatic-runner Brandon Nimmo in the 10th inning of Game 1 marked his first walk-off hit in two seasons with the Mets and his first since 2018 with Cleveland. He’d also evened the score, 4-4, with a run-scoring double to right off Dominic Leone in the Mets’ three-run fifth.

“He’s in a good place, I’ve been saying it,” Showalter said of Lindor, who has reached base safely in all 12 games this season. “Maybe he was in a good place last year, too, when they broke camp. But I can just tell he likes the group around him. … This club was in first place last year for quite a while, so it wasn’t like nothing good happened last year.

“You know how many ways he contributed tonight, both ways? He contributes in a lot of facets of the game. He’s fun to watch.”