Mets Francisco Lindor off to slow start but believes turnaround will come in just a matter of time

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.The early numbers are, once again, not pretty for Francisco Lindor.He snapped a skid of 11 hitless at-bats with a seventh inning single in his fourth trip to the plate in the Mets’ 7-1 loss to the Diamondbacks on Thursday night at Citi Field.He now has just eight hits all season, and just three of those have been for extra bases.Lindor knows he’s off to another rough first few weeks to a season, but he insists it’s not because of the surgery to remove the hamate bone in his left hand in February.He can point to the pair of hits, including a double, he had Tuesday against Arizona, with three balls over 100 mph.

Lindor noted the ball he hit off Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller on March 28, a shot that went to deep center at 106 mph, as proof that the procedure, which can rob hitters of power, is not to blame for any slow start.“They said the power was gonna be down, and I’m hitting the ball just as hard as I have before,” Lindor said before Thursday’s game against the Diamondbacks at Citi Field.“It’s just a matter of time.”Despite his confidence that he will hit like he typically does, Lindor acknowledged he still feels the effects of the injury “here and there, but I’m good.” “Of course you worry about not being the same,” Lindor said of his mindset early in the season.

“You do grips and strength tests, and you don’t know if it’s strong enough or what it once was.But then you feel you’re hitting the ball like normal and you think you’re fine.

That’s where I am.”The results so far haven’t followed.That’s nothing new for Lindor, no stranger to shaky Aprils, which is what Carlos Mendoza called this one.“The injury has nothing to do with it,” the manager said of the fact Lindor, who is now Thursday just 8-for-51 (.157) with three extra-base hits and no runs batted in.

“He’s fine.T...