Lindor Reaches 300 Career Home Runs in Mets' Season Finale

Francisco Lindor achieved a personal goal Sunday, hitting his 300th career home run in the New York Mets' 6-4 loss to the Washington Nationals. The Mets shortstop had been at 299 career homers since September 12.

Lindor expressed a deliberate shift in his approach for the final game of the season. "I wasn’t trying [to homer] the past couple of days, I was just trying to have good at-bats," Lindor said. "And then today I said, ‘I am going to try to hit a home run.’ It doesn’t work out that way all the time, but today it did."

Despite missing two months earlier in the season due to a calf strain, Lindor concluded his season with 21 home runs and a .732 OPS. He acknowledged the support system that enabled him to reach the milestone, stating, "To hit 300 [homers] you have got to be healthy for a long time. The trainers here, in Cleveland, my people, have helped me a lot to stay on the field."

Pitcher Sean Manaea finished his season with a 4.78 ERA after allowing five earned runs on seven hits and a walk over six innings in Sunday's game. Manaea indicated his offseason focus will be on improving his fastball velocity, an area he struggled with for consistency throughout the season.

"I would say [this season] was a disappointment — we didn’t as a team do what we needed to do," Manaea reflected. "I personally didn’t need to do what I needed to do. There were flashes of some really good times. There was also a lot of negative things. Overall, I would say it was a disappointment."

In other Mets news, Carson Benge recorded his third consecutive multi-hit game, going 3-for-5 and batting .462 over his final 10 games. Ronny Mauricio concluded his season with a home run, his third in the last two days.