Francisco Lindor homers, Sean Manaea strikes out five in Mets’ win

CHICAGO — It’s hard to imagine where the Mets would be without Sean Manaea and Francisco Lindor this season. Manaea has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since the start of July, while Lindor has cemented himself as an NL MVP candidate.

Those two players stepped up big time in the team’s 2-0 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday afternoon to complete the three-game sweep. That victory pushed the Mets (73-64) to a season-high nine games over .500 and just one game behind the Braves (74-63), who hold the final NL Wild Card spot.

“We knew coming in here, especially after playing the Padres and the Diamondbacks, that we needed to keep the intensity,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We needed to stay locked in, match the energy, and I’m proud of the guys that we were able to do it one day at a time.”

Lindor broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning when he launched a first-pitch cutter from White Sox starter Garrett Crochet for his 29th home run of the year. Those 29 long balls are the fourth most among all MLB shortstops this season — behind only Gunnar Henderson (33), Corey Seager (30) and Bobby Witt Jr. (30).

Lindor has been on a heater at the plate over the past few months, which has helped the Mets gain ground in the NL Wild Card standings. Dating back to June 25, the All-Star shortstop is hitting an impressive .303 with 16 home runs, 40 RBIs and 16 doubles.

During that stretch, New York is 36-25 while tied with the Yankees and Royals for the second-most runs in baseball (297). Unsurprisingly, Lindor is a major reason for the Mets’ second-half turnaround.

Just as big of a contributor during that span has been Manaea, who has been a workhorse for the Mets recently. On Sunday, the left-hander logged his fourth straight quality start by tossing seven scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

That outing marked Manaea’s ninth quality start since July 2 and his fifth start of at least seven innings over his past seven outings.

“I saw something different today out of Manaea,” Mendoza said. “When he’s going against one of the better arms in the league, he showed us something today where, ‘I’m going to give you guys a chance, too.’ He’s been doing that.”

The southpaw was dealing all afternoon against the White Sox, holding them to just two hits. Manaea didn’t face much trouble in his 27th start of the season, except for his final inning when he allowed three baserunners to reach.

His ability to eventually get out of that inning unscathed shows just how dominant the Mets pitcher has been as of late. Since July 2, Manaea has allowed just 23 earned runs across 74 1/3 innings pitched (2.78 ERA). During that span, he ranks tied for first in quality starts (nine), first in innings pitched and tied for fifth in strikeouts (78).

“It’s been amazing,” Lindor said. “It’s been amazing to see how he has worked on his plan, his approach, and he has executed it. He seems like he’s getting better as the year goes on, which is a really good thing. I’m happy with how he’s doing it. I’m not impressed because I faced him before. It’s not fun to hit against him. He’s an extremely big competitor, and he works hard.”

Manaea and Lindor’s efforts on Sunday helped New York end one of its longest road trips of the season with a sweep over the White Sox. The road trip also featured a series win over the D-backs and a four-game series split against the Padres — two teams the Mets trail in the NL Wild Card race.

But after going 7-3 in those games, the Mets are happy with how they fared on the road trip and are excited to go back to New York within reach of the final NL Wild Card spot.

“We’re in a good spot,” Lindor said. “We were in the same spot that we were before the road trip. We’re in a position that we still got a chance for playoffs, and we’ve got to continue to climb the mountain.”