Francisco Lindor's slugger spoke loudest when the Mets needed him most

ATLANTA – Francisco Lindor spoke so much on Monday.

Words were needed after Edwin Diaz jumped to a three-run lead in the chaotic bottom of the eighth inning of the doubleheader opener.

The Braves scored four runs in the frame, had stormed ahead and were just three outs away from a stunning comeback.

Lindor remembers using a word repeatedly in the dugout before the ninth.

“Keep fighting. Just fight. Battle. Battle. Fight,” Lindor would later say. “We had to play 27 outs.”

After the 27th out, the Mets' unofficial captain addressed a victorious clubhouse that had to postpone its celebration and play nine more innings.

“Keep fighting,” Lindor told his teammates, according to Tylor Megill. “That’s all we’ve done all year.”

The words are important from an MVP candidate who carried the team on his back all season until his back gave out – and is now doing so again despite the pain.

However, the momentum was louder.

Of course it was Lindor.

Of course, it was the face and voice of the team that came in from a one-run deficit in the ninth inning and turned it into a one-run lead.

Of course, it was Lindor, whose back hurts when he bends, who went to the ground and got a low curveball from Pierce Johnson and fired it over the center field wall at Truist Park for the two-run home run that sent the Mets into the postseason and offside his teammates in hysterics.

The Mets poured out of the dugout.

Mark Vientos waved a towel.

Jesse Winker called for an airstrike.

A jubilant Starling Marte, who had previously hit a single, was nearly run over on the basepaths.

Amid the moving scene was a stoic Lindor.

He ran hard out of the penalty area, unsure if the ball would reach the necessary distance.

He watched as it cleared the wall and the glove of Michael Harris II and “Mr. “Smile” didn’t crack or slow his pace.

He kept running, the effort of preparing for these games almost overwhelming the joy that swings like these brought him.

“My back hurts. I'm tired,” Lindor said of his reserved reaction. “I know how good Atlanta is.”

It wasn't good enough in the first game of the doubleheader, but the Mets ultimately maintained their lead in a stirring 8-7 win over the Braves that sent his team to the postseason.

The Mets' best player played like this in their biggest game.

He pitched nine shortstop innings despite pain that forced him to sit out eight straight games.

He hit an RBI single in the eighth inning as part of a six-run upset.

He watched Diaz collapse, talked his team through the collapse, and then stole the game right back.

Lindor was looking for something over the plate and got it, launching his 33rd and final home run of the season, which gave the Mets a chance to breathe and allowed him to finally sit down and rest for the second game .

Shohei Ohtani may have locked up the National League MVP, but there is no doubt who the Mets' MVP is both on and off the field.

“His leadership is unreal,” Megill said. “We’ll follow him.”