Heading into the 2025 season, the Mets’ offense was one to be reckoned with. The addition of Juan Soto and bringing back Pete Alonso made a formidable 1-2 punch that could rival any other team. Add in NL MVP runner-up Francisco Lindor and a cast of capable hitters and the 2025 Mets were poised to score a ton of runs.
Well, that hasn’t proven true in the early going. Not until the home opener at Citi Field, at least.
Entering Friday’s game against the Blue Jays, the Mets have scored 23 runs in their first six games, but only in two of them did they score more than three runs.
New York was motivated to be aggressive and push across as many runs as possible, and it started with Lindor.
Leading off, the unofficial Mets captain went the other way and deposited a hit into left-center and stretched it into a double — originally called out but overturned after replay. After the game, Lindor said that coaches and other players have been talking to him about setting the tone by being aggressive.
“The guys behind me are really, really good. Let them do what they do,” Lindor said. “My job as a leadoff is to set the tone.”
It was a great start for Lindor, who entered the game mired in an all-too-familiar April slump. He was 2-for-20 on the team’s road trip to start the season with six strikeouts and no walks.
“I didn’t do a good job on the road trip to give the team quality at-bats. My main goal today was to give quality at-bats, if I do that, hitting is very contagious,” Lindor elaborated. “Hopefully, that passes on to Soto. Soto’s been having great at-bats, the he can pass it on to Pete, he’s been doing fantastic. Then to Nimmo, he’s been doing very good. By me setting the tone, hopefully, everyone else can pass it along and end up on top.”
“Great to set the tone right away. Everything is calculated, what he does,” Nimmo said of Lindor. “Push it for the double, obviously a great slide to get in there safely and to grab the momentum right away and never let go. That’s the way you want to play all the way through. Happy for Lindor. You’re not going to keep him down for long. We know big games are coming from him soon.”
Alonso would drive in Lindor with his opposite-field homer that put the Mets up 2-0 after the first. Lindor would set the table for the Mets again in the sixth with a one-out walk. The Jays brought in a lefty to take on Soto, but the perennial All-Star lined a double down the right-field line, scoring Lindor all the way from first base.
After Alonso was intentionally walked, Nimmo would make Toronto pay with a double to increase the Mets’ lead to 4-0. Starling Marte would push across the final run of the game with a sacrifice fly.
That sixth inning magnified how dangerous this lineup could be. No matter how the Blue Jays tried to play around with the matchups, it was a next-man-up mentality, with Nimmo’s double that Alonso said “pushed us over the edge” for the win. Nimmo said after that he always wants to make a team pay for intentionally walking the batter in front of him and was glad to come through for the team.
He also echoed Lindor when asked about the offense as a whole.
“They say hitting is contagious and that’s a real thing. Just going up there and playing off the momentum,” he said. “Soto getting that big double was huge to be able to get some more breathing room. Knowing that hitting is contagious and knowing you’re going up there with a good plan and try and execute it.
“It was a good feeling to come through and glad I can help the boys there and solidify that win in the end.”
When the Mets signed Soto and re-signed Alonso, when talking about Nimmo’s RBI double, Lindor pointed to it as proof that this offense is more than just a couple of players.
“It proves that it’s not about 1, 2, 3 hitters. Everyone in this lineup can do damage,” Lindor said. “Nimmo’s been doing damage for a very long time. To walk Pete to go lefty on lefty, now they’re going to have to start rethinking their game plan because they know Nimmo is going to execute. I like the depth of the lineup.
“Today was a good day to be a New York Met, and we got to come back tomorrow and put on a better show.”
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