Lindor’s 250th Homer Gives Mets Walk-Off Win Over Cardinals

Francisco Lindor brought some of his playoff magic to April, launching a walk-off home run into the upper deck to give the Mets a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Friday night that sent Citi Field into a frenzy.

It was the first walk-off homer as a Met for Lindor and the 250th home run of his career. He was doused with water by his teammates as he crossed the plate.

The Cardinals tied the game in the ninth when Huascar Brazobán coughed up a game-tying solo home run to Brendan Donovan. It was a rare misstep for the bullpen, which entered Friday with a 2.09 ERA, third-best in MLB. Edwin Díaz was unavailable for the save situation after pitching in each of the prior two games.

Luis Torrens hit a tie-breaking RBI double off old friend Phil Maton in the eighth inning to put the Mets up 4-3 after Max Kranick and Ryne Stanek combined for 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief.

Mark Vientos homered for the second-straight game, this time blasting a solo shot off Kyle Leahy that tied the game at 3 in the sixth inning. The Mets rallied for two runs in the fifth when Brett Baty doubled, Tyrone Taylor tripled and Juan Soto singled to tie the game at 2.

The Mets (13-7) overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 before Lindor won it.

David Peterson struck out a season-high nine in 5 1/3 innings, but he wasn’t at his best. St. Louis (9-11) used three singles to score a run in the second, and a pair of singles sandwiched between a wild pitch scored a run in the fourth. Peterson gave up three earned runs on seven hits.

Stat of the Game

Pete Alonso didn’t homer, remaining 21 short of Darryl Strawberry‘s franchise record of 252. But he did smack his first triple since 2023, which was also the eighth of his career. He needs 105 more to catch franchise leader José Reyes.

Player of the Game

Lindor was 1-for-5, but he got Brazobán off the hook with his big blow, which was his second homer of the year. Lindor is one of five shortstops (60 percent of playing time at SS) with at least 250 homers, joining Cal Ripken Jr., Miguel Tejada, Hanley Ramírez and Derek Jeter.

On Deck

Kodai Senga (2-1, 1.06 ERA), who has thrown 12 scoreless innings while winning his last two starts, faces lefty Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 3.93 ERA) at 4:05 p.m. ET. The game will air on FOX.

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