NEW YORK (AP) — Francisco Lindor's walk-off sacrifice fly capped a late comeback that was keyed by Jesse Winker's two-run triple in the eighth inning, leading the New York Mets to a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night.
Jose Siri drew a one-out walk in the ninth against Nick Sandlin (0-1), went to second base on a wild pitch and was held at third on Luis Torrens’ single. Lindor greeted closer Jeff Hoffman with a lineout to right-center and Siri scored easily as second baseman Andres Giménez cut off the throw from Myles Straw.
It was the seventh career walk-off RBI for Lindor.
Edwin Diaz (1-0) struck out three in the ninth, including Giménez to strand a pair of runners.
Chris Bassitt tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings before the Mets tied it in the eighth against Brendon Little, who gave up Winker's two-run triple.
It was the second triple of the game for Winker, who entered with three in 760 regular-season big league contests and hadn't hit one in a regular-season game since 2021 with Cincinnati. He hit two during the playoffs — one against Milwaukee in the wild-card round and another against Los Angeles in the NLCS — last year with the Mets.
Blue Jays right fielder George Springer was injured crashing into the wall in pursuit of the hit and left the game accompanied by manager John Schneider and a trainer. Schneider said after the game Springer was dealing with lower back spasms and no MRI was needed.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette each had an RBI for the Blue Jays. Bassitt allowed four hits, walked none and struck out nine.
Mets starter Griffin Canning gave up one run in four-plus innings.
Key moment
Winker’s game-tying triple was just the Mets’ third hit in 13 at-bats with a runner on base Saturday.
Key stat
Bassitt, who threw his assortment of pitches between 69 and 93 mph, has tossed 14 1/3 scoreless innings in two starts at Citi Field since leaving the Mets following the 2022 season.
Up next
The three-game series concludes Sunday, when Mets left-hander David Peterson (1-0, 3.00 ERA) opposes Blue Jays right-hander Bowden Francis (1-0, 3.00).
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Jerry Beach, The Associated Press
