Francisco Lindor's excuse for bizarre strikeout is hard to fathom

Things are spiraling completely out of control for the New York Mets who just lost their fifth in a row in excruciating fashion against the San Francisco Giants to fall to 21-30 on the season. They are now 6-16 in the month of May and are tied for the third-worst record in the National League.

Just about everyone is to blame for the Mets rough start to their season, but Francisco Lindor is among those deserving the most blame. Lindor has finished in the top 10 in the NL MVP balloting in each of the last two seasons but has looked like a shell of himself thus far, slashing .208/.277/.366 on the year entering Saturday's action.

Lindor has played better of late and did get on base twice on Saturday out of the leadoff spot, but one strikeout in particular is tough for Mets fans to stomach during the team's recent play.

Lindor worked a full count against Giants reliever Randy Rodriguez and wound up taking a slider on the outside corner for strike three. It appeared as if he was taking all the way, which in a two-strike count would make absolutely no sense. Lindor's explanation is one that makes even less sense than the action itself.

Francisco Lindor's explanation of embarrassing strikeout is tough to understand

Lindor said he couldn't pick up the spin on Rodriguez's breaking ball and was simply hoping he'd throw it out of the zone for ball four. Lindor not picking up the spin checks out, as he swung at a pair of sliders nowhere near the zone earlier in the at-bat. However, even if he couldn't pick up the spin on that one pitch, he couldn't have appeared interested in hitting the ball at all?

Lindor saw mostly sliders in the at-bat but did see two fastballs. Sure, they both missed the zone, but who said it was certain that a slider was coming at 3-2? The Mets had just taken the lead earlier in the inning and had a runner at second base with two outs and Pete Alonso on deck. Did he think he wanted to walk Lindor to face the powerful Alonso who with one swing of the bat could completely change the game? Rodriguez happens to throw his fastball over 53 percent of the time according to Baseball Savant.

Rodriguez could've easily thrown a fastball for Lindor to hit simply out of fear of Alonso beating him. After all, that is part of the reason why the Mets moved Lindor up to the top of the order. So he'd see better pitches to hit. Lindor did get a slider and struck out looking, but even if he didn't want to swing he could've sat on a fastball and simply taken the slider while appearing to look interested in the at-bat. Nobody would bat an eye if he struck out looking in normal fashion. It's frustrating that he didn't give himself a chance.

Lindor striking out in the fashion that he did is not the reason that they wound up losing this game, but it's just another frustrating moment to come about without much of a reasonable explanation in a season full of inexplainable moments for this Mets team.