The other day, with Tommy Pham’s home run chain, an interesting connection emerged. Parson Perryman, who gave up Elmer Smith’s first home run in 1915, gave up only one other major league home run, to Jack Fournier, who is part of Francisco Lindor’s home run chain, which we had not gotten to yet.
Lindor hit his 18th home run of the season last night, and 202nd of his career, off Ryne Nelson, as part of the Mets’ 9-0 victory in Phoenix, their fifth straight triumph.
Francisco Lindor hit his first home run off Buck Farmer, 6/24/15
Buck Farmer gave up his first home run to Travis Snider, 8/13/14
Travis Snider hit his first home run off Kevin Slowey, 9/4/08
Kevin Slowey gave up his first home run to Eric Chávez, 6/1/07
Eric Chávez hit his first home run off LaTroy Hawkins, 5/15/99
LaTroy Hawkins gave up his first home run to Harold Baines, 4/29/95
Harold Baines hit his first home run off Jim Palmer, 4/19/80
Jim Palmer gave up his first home run to Moose Skowron, 4/19/65
Moose Skowron hit his first home run off Alex Kellner, 4/15/54
Alex Kellner gave up his first home run to Yogi Berra, 4/26/49
Yogi Berra hit his first home run off Jesse Flores, 9/22/46
Jesse Flores gave up his first home run to Nanny Fernandez, 4/29/42
Nanny Fernandez hit his first home run off Hal Schumacher, 4/17/42
Hal Schumacher gave up his first home run to Don Hurst, 4/15/31
Don Hurst hit his first home run off Red Lucas, 5/15/28
Red Lucas gave up his first home run to Jack Fournier, 5/5/24
Jack Fournier hit his first home run off Joe Engel, 8/7/13
Joe Engel gave up his first home run to Donie Bush, 6/10/12
Donie Bush hit his first home run off Ray Collins, 5/17/10
Ray Collins gave up his first home run to Hobe Ferris, 7/30/09
Hobe Ferris hit his first home run off Bill Reidy, 6/11/01
Bill Reidy gave up his first home run to Mike Donlin, 5/25/01
Mike Donlin hit his first home run off Bill Bernhard, 8/26/99
Bill Bernhard gave up his first home run to Jimmy Williams, 7/24/99
Jimmy Williams hit his first home run off Jack Dunn, 6/29/99
Jack Dunn gave up his first home run to Cy Seymour, 5/6/97
Cy Seymour hit his first home run off Bill Hoffer, 4/30/97
Bill Hoffer gave up his first home run to Mike Griffin, 4/26/95
Mike Griffin hit his first home run off Ed Seward, 4/16/87
As for last night, it was more than a Good Night for Lindor, it was a great one: 5-for-5 with a homer and two triples — the rare double shy of the cycle. The last time a Met was a double shy was last July 29, when Starling Marte had a single, triple, and homer in Miami. The only other time that a Met was a double shy of the cycle but had another, superior extra-base hit? Rico Brogna with two homers on May 11, 1996 against the Cubs. Shoutout to those who also, like Lindor, had two singles: Gary Carter (1985), Dave Magadan (1990), Damion Easley (2008), Travis d’Arnaud (2017), and Amed Rosario (2019).
Lindor is the first Met to finish a double shy of the cycle and have a five-hit game. That’s happened only three other times since Brett Gardner became the only player to do this against the Mets, in 2009: Eduardo Escobar (2014 Twins), Tucker Barnhart (2018 Reds), and David Peralta (2021 Diamondbacks).
The Mets’ record for triples in a game remains three, set by Doug Flynn in 1980. Lindor joins Joe Chrisotpher, back on August 18, 1964, in the Mets’ two-triples-and-a-homer-in-the-same-game club. Those hits were important as Christopher hit exactly .300 for the season, joining Ron Hunt as the Mets’ first pair of .300 hitters — Richie Ashburn set the early team record at .306 in 1962, and Hunt was the team’s batting champ at .272 in the 111-loss second season.
We Can Pod It Out 150: Good Night