Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor finally breaks out of his slump in win over Reds amid threats

Francisco Lindor finally snapped out of an early-season slump in the Mets' win over the Reds on Sunday amid disturbing threats sent to his wife, Katia, and owner Steve Cohen calling for fans to show support.   

The 30-year-old shortstop, who's playing his fourth MLB season with the Queens-based ballclub, had two hits and scored two runs to lead the visiting Mets to a 3-1 win over Cincinnati in the rubber game of a three-game series on the last day of this past weekend.

The Mets won their first series of the season while the Reds dropped a series for the first time.

Lindor, who entered Sunday with just one single in his first 31 at-bats, doubled with one out in the first against Andrew Abbott (0-1) and raced home two batters later, when Santiago Espinal threw away a potential inning-ending grounder by Francisco Alvarez. His drought at bat this season was the third-longest hitless streak of his career, but Lindor felt like a breakthrough was coming. The last time he homered with two outs in the fourth for his first round-tripper was on Sept. 30 of last year.

'Guess I felt like I've had good at-bats,' Lindor, who ended an 0-for-24 skid said. 'The day before I had good at-bats. It's just one of those things where they just need to go through. As soon as I hit the ball, I put my head down. I kind of looked up, and it was like, ''Thank God''. It felt good to contribute and help the team win.'

Amid his early-season struggles at bat, some Mets fans had started turning on Lindor, attacking his family on social media before his decisive display on Sunday.

Lindor's wife, Katia, shared two disturbing private messages she had received on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week. In one shocking message a user called her husband a 'f***ing piece of s**t' and said they hoped that 'him and your child die screaming.' 

Another blamed her for 'not holding your husband accountable' as they called her a 'selfish c**t'. 

Alongside the screenshots of the DMs, Katia said she could normally overlook the 'cowardly' hate on social media but claimed that the users had crossed the line by bringing her children into the abuse. 

'I'm usually all for triggering male fragile egos and find it borderline comical when I get cowardly social media hate, but when lowlifes like this bring my husband and kids to the conversation, whew, that really crosses a boundary & it saddens me to know how vile some people are,' she wrote. 

'How unhappy must you be with your own life? Go take out your anger elsewhere, please. For every negative comment, there's an outpouring of positive ones. This is my message of gratitude to those who have gone out of their way to consistently show support.'

Lindor showed his appreciation for his wife's support just a day before ending his skit at bat on Sunday in the Mets' 9-6 loss at Great American Ball Park.

'I love that she's always looking out for what's best for me and what's best for our family,' Lindor said. His wife's replies section was filled with messages of support from other fans and owner Steve Cohen. 

On Sunday, Mets fans gave Lindor a standing ovation after his catalyst display. Postgame, he told SportsNet New York that the likes of Carlos Beltran, Sandy Alomar, Tommy Pham and Tomas Nido have all reached out to him regarding the abuse he received online.

'It's good to know there's people on my side besides my wife and my family,' Lindor said in the Mets locker room. 'I'm going to keep my head down and keep climbing, keep grinding day in, day out.