Watch: New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor leaves the Milwaukee Brewers defense flat-footed with a perfect bunt

New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor embarrassed the Milwaukee Brewers' defense with a perfect bunt tonight
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor embarrassed the Milwaukee Brewers' defense with a perfect bunt tonight

MLB defensive squads have few options when it comes to stifling the bat of New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor. He's got all the tools he needs. He can use his power to go hard. He can use his contact-hitting abilities to rope a double into the opposite field, and he has the speed to leg out an infield single.

He did the latter on Tuesday evening against the Milwaukee Brewers. When Lindor came up to bat in the third inning, his team already had a 3-0 lead. There was one out, and no runners were on base. The Brewers infielders decided to try something different against Lindor. They shifted everyone to the right side of the infield.

The statistics show that Lindor, who is a left-handed hitter, will probably hit the ball to the right. But he wasn't playing by the book. All Lindor saw was a wide-open left infield. On a 0-1 count, Lindor dropped his bat and laid down a perfect bunt up the third base line. By the time anyone picked it up, Lindor was already overrunning first base.

"Shift against Lindor with his speed? That's a great idea," said the SNY commentary.

New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor makes the Milwaukee Brewers look foolish with a perfect bunt

New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is a versatile hitter
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is a versatile hitter

The New York Mets broadcast loved Lindor's bunt. They couldn't get over the Brewers being careless enough to give Lindor a bunting opportunity when he's a known threat on the basepaths.

"Shift against Francisco Lindor at your own risk," wrote SNY in a Tweet.

That bunt belongs in the Hall of Fame. They're becoming a lost art around the MLB these days as advanced metrics show they produce outs more often than not.

Here's the funny part. A little over one year ago, Lindor complained about the shift, saying he wanted the freedom to be himself as a fielder. And it's hard to imagine he liked it as a hitter either. No hitters like the shift.

"The shift has got to be cut down," he said. "Let me do me. Let me make the crazy play. Me be like, 'Okay, he's going to pull the ball. I can't be on that side of the base.' So as the pitch goes, I run on the other side of the base---pow!---and make the play... we can't market the shift. We can't market strikeouts."

Tonight, Lindor took advantage of the shift perfectly.

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