Francisco Lindor hit his 300th career home run during the second inning of the New York Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Washington Nationals on Sunday at Nationals Park. The milestone homer came off Nationals left-hander DJ Herz after a one-hour rain delay, traveling a Statcast-projected 409 feet to left field with an exit velocity of 110.8 mph.
Historical Shortstop Milestone
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Lindor is the fifth player to play at least 50 percent of his games at shortstop at the time of reaching 300 home runs. He joins a group that includes Ernie Banks, Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Miguel Tejada. Lindor is also the only shortstop to belong to the 300-home run and 200-stolen base club.
“I don’t think it’s often you get to see baseball history,” manager Andy Green said. “Shortstops don’t do that. Only five in history, and he’s [the only shortstop] in the 300-200 club. He’s been a special teammate the entire time I’ve been here. He’s been an unbelievable competitor.”
Lindor also became the 11th switch-hitter to reach the 300-home run threshold, and just the second among them to also collect at least 200 stolen bases, alongside Carlos Beltrán. “Special for sure. Wish we would have won, but I think it’s a cool number,” Lindor said. “I’m blessed to be in the position I am today. I thank a lot of the coaches. I thank a lot of the trainers.”
Game Recap and Season Finish
Lindor’s home run was part of back-to-back long balls in the second inning, following Ronny Mauricio’s homer in his third straight at-bat. However, the Nationals shut out the Mets for the remainder of the game. Andrés Chaparro hit his second home run of the day in the fifth inning to take the lead, and Brady House added an insurance run with an RBI single in the seventh.
The loss left the Mets with a 74-88 record, securing their first last-place finish in the National League East since 2003. Despite the finish, the team showed improvement in the second half of the season, posting a 34-31 record following the All-Star break after a 40-57 start.
“Hungry to change the narrative,” Green said regarding the offseason outlook. “We got three, four months here to get after it in the offseason. [For] each guy to kind of chase the best version of themselves, and then after that’s done, get together in Spring Training and get after it and do something special together.”
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