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Mets' Francisco Lindor reaches 300 career home runs
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- Mets' Francisco Lindor reaches 300 career home runs
Francisco Lindor has added another milestone to his already impressive resume.
The Mets ' star shortstop smacked the 300th home run of his career, going back-to-back with Ronny Mauricio in the top of the second on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park.
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"I don't think it's often you get to see baseball history," manager Andy Greensaid after New York fell in the season finale 6-4 .
"He's been a special teammate the entire time I've been here; he's an unbelievable competitor," the manager continued. "His career speaks for itself. We all know where it's ultimately headed."
The shortstop, who finished the year with 21 homers in 105 games, called the moment "special."
"I think it's a good number," he said. "I'm blessed to be in the position that I'm in today. I thank the coaches; I thank the trainers. To hit 300, you got to be healthy for a long time. The trainers here, Cleveland , my people, have helped me a lot to stay on the field.
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"It seems like it's a day for me, but at the end of the day, it's for all these people that have pushed me to be better day in and day out and made me better."
Lindor has seemingly been pressing since toeing the mark after cracking two as part of a monster game a couple of weeks ago in the Subway Series, but he was finally able to reach it on the final day of the season.
Green said there was no indication that the little drought after hitting No. 299 was "eating at him," but Lindor "certainly didn't want to sit on it for the offseason."
"Glad he did it today; glad he got to celebrate with his teammates in there," the skipper said. "It's a good highlight for Mets fans to end this year."
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Lindor, of course, said it was something that was on his mind to do before the end of the season, "for sure."
"I wasn't trying the past couple days. I was just trying to have good at-bats," he said. "And then today, something said, 'You know what? I'm gonna try to hit a home run.'
"Doesn't work out like that all the time, but today it did."
He used a September power surge to get there, lifting seven in the final month of the year.
Of his 300 career dingers, 292 have come as a shortstop, with the other eight coming while serving as the DH.
The only two players in MLB history with more home runs as a SS are Cal Ripken Jr.(345) and Alex Rodriguez (344).
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"We know how rare [300 HR's] is in baseball, but even how rarer it is as a shortstop," Green recently said. "We know what he's battled through in the times where he hadn't performed up to expectation in his own mind, and he always comes back and performs no matter what.
"You look up at the end of the year, and that's exactly what Francisco Lindor does -- we're well past a decade in his career right now, and it's really, really special what he's been able to do at this level."
