Behind Mark Vientos and Francisco Lindor, the Mets even beat the NLCS

LOS ANGELES – It happened literally in the blink of an eye, a Mark Vientos' eyebrow trembled beneath his sunglasses when he understood the Los Angeles Dodgers' decision. They wanted nothing to do with Francisco Lindor and preferred Landon Knack to face Vientos in a crucial spot.

“All right, do you want me to get up?” Vientos summarized his own look. “I’ll show you.”

“One thing Mark doesn’t lack is confidence,” Lindor said with a laugh. “That's him. I’m glad he took it personally.”

It takes a certain kind of confidence to view this decision by Los Angeles to bypass your team's obvious MVP, who had already played against you in the game, as disrespectful. But you don't hit the big leagues at 22 and call yourself “Swaggy V” without having that exact level of hubris. And on Monday in Game 2 of the NLCS, Vientos justified the confidence he's had all season.

Vientos' grand slam in the second inning was the key to the Mets' 7-3 victory over the Dodgers on Monday at Chavez Ravine. One day after the loss to Los Angeles, the Mets even got revenge in the series. Game 3 is Wednesday night in Queens.

SLAMMA-JAMMA@MarkVientos_5 | #LGM pic.twitter.com/UzsPArfiPP

— x – New York Mets (@Mets) October 14, 2024

At this point, it's no surprise that the Mets are recovering from the mat as quickly as they did on Monday. Resilience is the driving force behind this team, and their belief in their rebounding ability has only grown stronger as the season has progressed.

But faith, like currency, requires a legitimate reserve to back it up. And so often for the Mets this season, that belief has been fueled by the quality of their hitting, by the intricacies of pitch recognition, controlling the count and seizing a mistake in the moment.

That belief is based on bats like the biggest one from Lindor and Vientos on Monday.

Vientos' strike against Knack was a clear pivot point early in the game. The Mets had taken the lead on Lindor's leadoff home run and had already added a run against Knack in the second. But Francisco Alvarez had emerged with two scorers, and the Dodgers were just shy of keeping the game close.

Given his reaction to Lindor's free pass, one might have expected Vientos to be particularly aggressive against Knack. But his burgeoning sense of poise was evident from the start, as he comfortably used Knack's strike-to-ball slider to launch the strike.

“He understands that he’s not bigger than the moment,” Lindor said of Vientos’ approach. “He just needs to be part of the moment.”

Vientos fouled off two sliders to go 1-2 and then fouled back a hard fastball above the strike zone. Vientos is on the hunt for the fastball: More than half of his home runs this year have come on heaters, and he hit .670 when putting four-seam fastballs like Knack's into play.

That's why, with the score at 1-2, Knack threw four straight sliders to him – two in the dirt he'd put down and two on the plate he'd fouled. Eight pitches deep in the offense, Knack tried to get a fastball past him on the outside corner. It was right in the middle.

“I didn’t think he was going to give me a fastball,” Vientos said. “My approach was to see a heater, but I wasn't expecting a heater. I thought I would get a slider and just stick it in the hole.”

And when he saw the fastball?

“Yes, I didn’t want to miss that.”

Vientos made it 391 feet the other way to make it 6-0.

“The deeper you get into the fight, the more information you get,” Lindor said.

“You only have so many tricks,” said reliever Ryne Stanek, explaining the pitcher’s perspective on those long attacks. “It makes the shot a lot more difficult when you’ve shown everything you’ve got.”

Vientos backed up a breakthrough regular season with a crazy postseason: in nine games, he hit .378 with three homers and an OPS of 1.086. (10/86? That was a good month for the Mets.)

“He’s growing up,” Lindor said.

“He’s done special things all year,” starter Sean Manaea said. “He rises to any occasion.”

Lindor had provided a blueprint for this attack an inning earlier, starting the game. Against Ryan Brasier, Lindor fouled off two fastballs and two sliders before Brasier resorted to his third-best pitch in the eighth: a cutter he had thrown just 12 percent of the time this season.

That was also a middle cut. Lindor hit the ball into the Mets' bullpen, breaking Los Angeles' 33-inning scoreless streak.

“It just gets everything going,” Manaea said. “It's a new day, it's a new game. There’s really no better way to start.”

“(It was big) not only because of the home run but because of the way he attacked it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He fouled a few pitches, dropped a few break balls and caught a pitch and pushed it forward to set the tone.”

The Mets worked all day on these long plate appearances. Jesse Winker helped get the rally started with a seven-pitch walk in the second. Tyrone Taylor drove in a run despite trailing 2-0. Pete Alonso later had a 10-pitch at-bat, although it ended with a strikeout.

The series now returns to Queens, shortened to a best-of-five, with home advantage shifting to the Mets.

“We get punched in the face and we continue to find ways to get back up,” Mendoza said. “And it will continue to be that way.”

(Photo by Mark Vientos: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)