Mets Superstar Issues Warning Before Seemingly Easy Series

Francisco Lindor is not taking the New York Mets' next series lightly.

Grant Young | Aug 30, 2024

Aug 17, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates after hitting a home run during the first inning against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-USA TODAY Sports / Lucas Boland-USA TODAY Sports

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The New York Mets improved to 70-64 after defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 on Thursday.

This victory brought the Mets' record in August to 13-13; which, while not ideal, has kept them firmly in the NL Wild Card race.

And New York has a great opportunity to end this month with a winning record because their final two August games are against the Chicago White Sox, who are 31-104 this season and tracking to be one of the worst MLB teams in the last half-century.

Despite what may appear to be three automatic wins this weekend, Mets superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor is refusing to count his chickens before they hatch.

“It’s one of those where we can’t take it for granted,” Lindor said of the upcoming series against Chicago, per SNY. “We gotta go out there with the same intensity and it might be tougher to have the same intensity because the crowd might not be as involved as it is here, but at the end of the day, there’s big league players on the other side.

"And it’s our job to go out there and give it our best day in and day out,” he added.

While the Mets may be .500 this month, they have won six of their last 10 games; all of which came against teams (the Baltimore Orioles, the San Diego Padres, and the Arizona Diamondbacks) who would all be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

Lindor's middle infield partner in crime Jose Iglesias echoed his teammate's sentiment, saying, "Big series coming in Chicago. We gotta treat it like San Diego and Arizona with the right mindset and the right energy and we will be fine.”

While the Mets are currently three games out of an NL Wild Card spot, a weekend sweep over Chicago would close that gap considerably.

Published Aug 30, 2024

GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.