Mets superstar joins MLB legends Cal Ripken Jr., Derek Jeter, Miguel Tejada in rare club with homer vs. Red Sox

New York Mets superstar Francisco Lindor cemented himself alongside baseball greats after a rare feat in yesterday' game against the Boston Red Sox. Lindor became just the fourth shortstop in history with at least 10 home runs in 10 of his first 11 seasons, joining the likes of Hall of Famers Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr., and Oakland Athletics great Miguel Tejada.

On the top of the ninth inning, Lindor smashed a solo shot off Boston Red Sox reliever Sean Newcomb that was carried deep to left field and cleared the Green Monster at Fenway Park before falling back to the field for his 10th home run of the year.

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The solo bomb gave the Mets a 5-1 lead that will ultimately be the final score line in the series-closing game in Beantown. Lindor went 2-for-5 in the contest with the aforementioned home run being one of his two base hits for the night.

At the time of writing, Lindor is batting .283/.351/.480 with an OPS of .831, 10 home runs, 29 RBI, and nine stolen bases. On an interesting side not, Lindor almost went perfect with at least 10 home runs in his first 11 seasons if not for the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign wherein he tallied eight home runs.

The Mets superstar's career home run tally in a year remains at 38 that he accomplished in 2018. During his productive year when he was still a member of the Indians, Lindor finished in sixth in AL MVP voting after leading the league in runs scored at 129.

Mets dodge embarrassing sweep in Boston

The New York Mets barely escaped an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Red Sox in their three-game series. The visitors closed out the set of fixtures with a 5-1 win in Game 3.

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The Red Sox limited the National League squad to a solitary run in the first two games of the series. Fortunately, the latter's bats came alive in the final game as Brett Baty's two-hit and three-RBI games in addition to Juan Soto and Lindor's contributions, were enough to put Boston away.

Although they won the series-closer, the Mets have now surrendered the NL East lead to the surging Philadelphia Phillies which holds a 31-18 record. Philly has been on an upward trajectory having won eight of its last 10 games, including six straight.

Coming up next for the Lindor-led squad is a bigger task as they host the Dodgers tomorrow, May 23, to kickoff a three-game series. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m., Eastern.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago