Lindor, Five Mets Homers Bury Yankees 12-2 in September Beatdown
Francisco Lindor went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI as the Mets dismantled the Yankees 12-2 on September 12. Five different New York Mets players went deep, and the offense was so relentless it looks like the Yankees never had a real answer for any of it.
The Mets wasted no time. Lindor opened the scoring with a 359-foot shot to right, and two batters later Luis Torrens crushed a 387-foot two-run homer to left that scored Jared Young — swinging the Yankees' win probability from 53% to 32% in a single swing. That was the moment the game effectively changed hands. Carson Benge added a solo shot to right center (368 feet) to push it to 4-0, and Gerrit Cole — who lasted just 4.1 innings, allowing 9 hits and 5 earned runs — was getting carved up before the Yankees could even settle in.
New York did punch back briefly. Cody Bellinger singled to right to score Goldschmidt, then went deep to right center (364 feet) to make it 5-2, and for a moment it appeared the Yankees might have a pulse. That pulse flatlined fast. Juan Soto answered with a 400-foot homer to right center, Torrens doubled to left to score Semien, and then Lindor delivered the knockout — a 365-foot grand slam to right center that scored Ewing, Torrens, and Morabito to push the lead to 11-2. Jared Young capped the scoring in the ninth with a solo shot to right (365 feet). The Mets hit six home runs in total. Six.
On the mound, Zac Thornton was steady and efficient — 7.0 innings, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts. He didn't need to be brilliant because the offense was doing the heavy lifting, but he kept the Yankees from making it interesting. Tobias Myers closed it out with 2.0 scoreless innings. The story of the night was the Mets' lineup operating like a wrecking crew from the first pitch, with Lindor at the center of it — 5 RBI, 2 home runs, and the kind of performance that looks like a statement regardless of the calendar date. The Yankees, for their part, got a solid 2.1 innings from Ryan Yarbrough before Cole absorbed the damage. This one wasn't close.