Mets’ Francisco Lindor cooling off after red-hot stretch

After a red-hot stretch for over a month from July into August, Francisco Lindor has cooled off over the past week. 

With an 0-for-4 effort in the Mets’ 1-0 loss to the Rockies on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, Lindor dropped to 0-for-17 with five walks over his last five games. 

“I said it was going to happen,” said Lindor, who had plenty of company on Sunday in a quiet game for the Mets’ offense. “It’s part of the year. I’m going to have good times and I’m going to have bad times. Hopefully I can get out of it sooner rather than later.” 

Before this recent stretch, Lindor had not gone more than one game without a hit since July 6. This is the first time all season Lindor has gone five straight games without a hit, an indication of the overall strong year the shortstop has put together. 

That had especially been the case of late, as Lindor hit .352/.417/.545 across 37 games from July 11 to Aug. 21. But in six games since, he is 1-for-21 with five walks and six strikeouts with the Mets going 3-3. 

“Just part of the game,” Lindor said. “[Maybe] I’m going to go 10-for-10 against the Dodgers or I’m going to go 0-for-10, who knows? Just gotta be better.” 

Manager Buck Showalter did not seem to put too much stock into Lindor’s brief cold stretch. 

“Facing some good pitching,” Showalter said. “There’s an ebb and flow to the season. Obviously he’s been out there posting up for us and playing solid shortstop. He’s been a consistent guy. Everybody in that lineup has had ups and downs. 

“These guys spoil us with a high level of play so when you don’t have a couple of hits or something, it’s like, ‘What’s wrong?’ Sometimes what’s wrong is the other team was really good that day.”