Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and senior MLB analyst Jake Mintz discuss the Mets huge win over the Phillies to head to the NLCS and how Francisco Lindor has risen to the occasion this postseason. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

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Lindor is just he is, he is having moment after moment after moment and now as we zoom in on Lindor here in particular, I do want to go back to the middle of the season when we were having Francisco Lindor all Star discourse.

And I came on this show and when everyone was super angry that he was being snubbed for the All Star game, I was like, look, I mean, at the end of June, he had like a 750 op si was like Francisco Lindor is amazing, but he is not having one of his best seasons.

And I genuinely believe that however, since the start of July, he has like a 950 ops and he's delivered like four of the most memorable swings for the Mets in years, right?

And so it was never a matter of doubting his overall talent, but it is a reminder that it wasn't necessarily his best season for the beginning, but it was that, that, that, that he deserved it.

And I think that's what's so cool about that because even though statistically, I think at in the middle of the season, there was not a strong of a case.

So much of what was root in, that was Mets fans being like this dude deserves more love and more respect for what he has always been for this team, especially as they were trying to figure it out in the middle of the year and now him as a as just the leader and as like the face of his team has now matched the actual production, which is just and just these singular moments, not clearly not singular moments because he keeps doing it over and over and over.

That's what's so incredible about what we've seen from Lyor over the course of the season for me.

He is at the top of the gate like he is, this is a upper echelon, put some respect on that man's name like this is, this is it right?

And I think that a year ago you would have said what a good player like really like superstar.

So what a superstar player, but I don't think he would have been in that in the rare air, you know, and I think he's there now and well deserved.

Um He doesn't react to the moment and that was kind of what my piece was about how these, you know, top of the charts of players in these big moments don't react.

Harper did the same thing in 2022 like the place explodes around them and they're just calm.

Lindor doesn't even smile until he had his home plate.

Starling Marte lifts him up and with Starling Marte lift him up, I was like, oh my God, his back.

I was like, if he had lifted him up like that two weeks ago, it would have been so painful.

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