Francisco Lindor hit a two-out grand slam in the fourth inning, right after Manny Machado made an error, and then added a leadoff home run in the seventh to lead the New York Mets to a 7-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night.
Lindor hit home runs from both sides of the plate, and Harrison Bader also hit a home run for the Mets, who have won two of the first three games in their four-game series against the Padres, who are also in the NL playoff race.
“It feels pretty cool to hit home runs from each side, for sure,” Lindor said. “It’s one of those where as you run the bases, it’s like, ’Wow, my swing is good. I’m aligning pretty good.’ ”
David Peterson (8-1) pitched 7 1/3 strong innings for the Mets, who bounced back well from their 7-0 loss on Friday night, when they only had two hits, including one against Joe Musgrove, who pitched seven excellent innings.
Lindor now has 27 home runs, tying him with Pete Alonso for the team lead. It was his 19th career game with multiple home runs and his seventh grand slam in his 10-year career.
Lindor hit his grand slam as a left-handed batter and his solo home run as a right-handed batter.
“That means my body aligned perfectly today,” Lindor said. “When I rack and rotate from one side and then turn around and rotate perfectly on the other side, that means my body’s in a good spot.
That’s what I try to do day in, day out. I come out and do my work early to put my body in position where it’s ready to fire from both sides.”
Lindor’s five RBIs provided more than enough support for Peterson, who had only one rough inning against the Padres, who were holding the NL’s second wild-card spot going into the game. The Mets are trailing Atlanta for the final wild-card spot.
Lindor’s grand slam traveled 417 feet into the right-center seats, exciting a large group of Mets fans behind the third base dugout.
Michael King (11-7) got the first two batters out but then gave up a single to Starling Marte. Francisco Alvarez hit a line drive right to Machado at third base, but it slipped out of his glove for an error. King then hit Jeff McNeil with a pitch, loading the bases for Lindor.
