MLB playoffs: Lindor’s clutch grand slam sends Mets through to NLCS
Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning, his final clutch swing in an extraordinary season, and the New York Mets reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
Edwin Díaz retired Kyle Schwarber with two runners aboard to end it as New York shut down the rival Phillies in Game 4 of their best-of-five Division Series, winning 3-1 to make its first postseason appearance ‘ series to complete at home. in 24 years.
“We have to get the job done, and the job wasn’t done at that moment,” Lindor said of the moments leading up to his grand slam. “I’m just blessed to be the guy running track today.”
His teammate José Quintana was slightly more exuberant. “This man is amazing. He is the MVP,” he said.
Immediately afterwards in a raucous clubhouse: the Mets’ first champagne-soaked clinching celebration in Citi Field’s 16-season history.
For the NL East champion Phillies, who won 95 games and finished six games ahead of the wild-card Mets during the regular season, it was an acrimonious exit early in the playoffs and a disappointing step back after advancing to the 2022 World Series and then lost the Games. 6 and 7 of the 2023 NLCS at home in Arizona. After falling short again in October, Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still looking for the franchise’s third championship.
Perhaps overprotective at the plate with so much on the table, the Mets left the bases loaded in the first and second and stranded eight runners in the first five innings.
They put three runners on base again in the sixth, this time with no one out, before No. 9 hitter Francisco Alvarez drove home against All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman.
With the season on the line, Phillies manager Rob Thomson then called up Carlos Estévez to face Lindor, who drove a 99 mph 2-1 fastball into Philadelphia’s bullpen in right center , sending the sold-out crowd of 44,103 into a frenzied mood. , bouncing, throbbing madness.
Cleveland Guardians 0-3 Detroit Tigers
Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson each contributed a run, and six pitchers combined to lift the Detroit Tigers to a 3-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians and a 2-1 lead in their AL Division Series. The Tigers, baseball’s hottest team of the past two months, will get their first chance to advance to the American League Championship Series since 2013 in Game 4 at Comerica Park on Thursday evening. Cleveland has gone 20 consecutive innings without scoring since opening the series with a five-run first and a two-run sixth in their 7-0 victory.