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MIAMI — Francisco Lindor will hit, despite the initial inklings of what might be another slow start.
The shortstop will field, too, though Tuesday provided a rare example of his glove also not looking its best out of the gate.
A pair of Lindor errors led to extra pitches for Kodai Senga and more importantly two unearned runs in a 4-2 loss to the Marlins at loanDepot Park.
“It’s very rare,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, accurately, of Lindor, who now has played 1,379 regular-season games and logged two errors in four of them, the most recent instance on July 8, 2023. “It happens. He’s human.”
Lindor again has been human in the early going, knocking an RBI single Tuesday that is just his first hit of the year in 15 at-bats.
He is veteran enough to keep any issues surfacing at the plate away from the field, but he could not convert on a pair of ground balls in the first four innings.
In the second, Dane Myers hit a slow roller to a charging Lindor, who watched the ball deflect off his glove on a relatively difficult play that did not matter.
One pitch later, Luis Torrens gunned down Myers trying to steal second.
In the fourth, the play was a bit more routine if harder hit — a sharp grounder from Otto Lopez that bounded off Lindor’s glove — and it did matter.
Four batters later, with two outs in a frame that should have been over, Graham Pauley launched a two-run double that snapped a tie and became the game-winning runs.
“Usually errors happen when you take your eyes off the baseball, and I saw both of them hit my glove,” Lindor said. “Just missed it.”
He sought out Senga after the game and apologized, to which Senga replied he could have pitched better to ensure those errors were forgettable.
The Mets could have hit better, too, and Lindor was not part of the answer with his bat, either.
There are possible alibis for a player whose rough start last season cost him a bid to the All-Star Game and who was out of the lineup Monday to be with his wife and newborn son.
Lindor is not citing those alibis and simply said he would be back tomorrow to ensure a fifth game like this does not happen.
“I thought we played a clean game except two pitches, my two ground balls,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in it, and it doesn’t feel good.”
