NEW YORK (AP) — Francisco Lindor knew. He didn't have to watch.
He turned on an inside cutter from Ryan Fernandez leading off the ninth inning and sent the ball soaring into Citi Field's second deck in right field, 401 feet away.
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New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) gestures to teammates as he runs the bases after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) follows through on a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés, left, watches as New York Mets' Francisco Lindor hits a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with teammates after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Teammates dunk water on New York Mets' Francisco Lindor after a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with teammates after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
“I hit it with everything I had,” he said. “If that one didn’t go, I was going to run out of luck.”
Lindor's home run, the 250th of his major league career, lifted the New York Mets over the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Friday night and sent smoke rising from the Home Run Apple in center field.
He started to watch the ball head toward the seats, then turned away and decided there was no reason to observe the remainder of its parabolic journey.
“I kept my face in the dugout with the guys,” Lindor said. “I don’t even know where the ball landed. I knew it was going to be a home run.”
New York overcame deficits of 2-0 in the fifth and 3-2 in the sixth, then took a 4-3 lead on Luis Torrens' RBI double in the eighth. The Mets blew that advantage when Huascar Brazobán allowed Brendan Donovan home run starting the top of the ninth, a drive off the netting of the foul pole in right.
Brazobán struck out Jordan Walker, Thomas Saggese and Pedro Pagés in order to bring up the 31-year-old Lindor, a centerpiece of the Mets' revival that saw them reach last year's NL Championship Series.
Lindor took a cutter that bounced and a fastball for a strike, then feasted on the 1-1 pitch for his first walk-off homer with the Mets, the third of his major league career and first since 2018 with Cleveland.
“That’s why he’s an elite player and a special player, because the moment is never too big for him,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He knows what’s at stake and he lives for those moments and he came through again today. Special player, special person.”
Lindor became the 254th player with 250 homers and just the fifth to hit that amount primarily as a shortstop. He was the first to reach the mark with a walk-off.
“There's a lot that defines him, not only moments like this,” Mendoza said. “As soon as he gets to the ballpark, he’s impacting people in a positive way, just his presence, his interactions, the way he pushes people, the way he encourages people — and not only players, but coaches, support staff, everyone in this building. His presence, you could feel it every time he’s around.”
New York built a formidable top of the order, signing outfielder Juan Soto to a record $765 million, 15-year contract and then keeping first baseman Pete Alonso with a $54 million, two-year deal. The Mets lead the NL East ar 13-7 and are 7-1 at Citi Field.
“That’s as tough a one-two-three as you’re going to see just about anywhere in the league,” Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas said after allowing a tying RBI single in the fifth to Soto, who had been in a 3-for-31 slide.
Acquired from Cleveland in January 2021 in the Mets' first big move after Steve Cohen bought the team, Lindor helped build a winning culture in a team that hasn't won the World Series since 1986.
“He obviously has a lot of leadership in him and he takes on that role really well,” Mets pitcher David Peterson said. “Doesn’t hurt being the best shortstop in the game.”
A four-time All-Star, Lindor hit .273 with 33 homers and 91 RBIs last year, a fan favorite who sparks sing-alongs at Citi Field since adopting The Temptations' “My Girl” as his walk-up song last May.
Lindor ended the Mets other other walk-off win this season with a sacrifice fly against Toronto on April 5.
“I’m not a big fan of teammates that just talk the talk and they don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” he said. “So I take it very personal. I take it very — too hard. If I talk, I mean it. I’m just not just going to talk just for the sake of it.”
Asked what went through his mind as he circled the bases, Lindor recalled looking ahead to Saturday and a forecast of balmy conditions.
“We won. We get to go home,” he said. “I’m done with this cold weather.”
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New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) gestures to teammates as he runs the bases after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) follows through on a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés, left, watches as New York Mets' Francisco Lindor hits a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with teammates after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Teammates dunk water on New York Mets' Francisco Lindor after a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with teammates after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
CAXIUANA NATIONAL FOREST, Brazil (AP) — Deep in silence, as if under a spell, children watch intently as Bacuri, a young Amazonian manatee, glides around a small plastic pool. When he surfaces for air, some of them exchange wide smiles. The soft rustle of rainforest leaves punctuated by bird song adds to the magic of the moment.
The children from riverside communities traveled for hours by boat just to meet Bacuri at the field station of the Emilio Goeldi Museum, Brazil’s oldest research institute in the Amazon. Despite their endangered status, manatees are still hunted and their meat illegally sold, and they are increasingly threatened by climate change. Environmentalists hope that by engaging local communities, Bacuri and others like him will be spared.
The Amazonian manatee is the region’s largest mammal but is rarely seen, much less up close. The reasons for this are twofold: The manatee has acute hearing and will vanish into the murky water at the slightest sound; and its population has dwindled after being overhunted for hundreds of years, mostly for its tough hides that were exported to Europe and Central America.
To help the manatee population recover, several institutions are rescuing orphaned manatee calves, rehabilitating them and reintroducing them to the wild.
Bacuri weighed just 22 pounds (10 kilograms) — a fraction of the more than 900 pounds (400 kilograms) of an adult manatee — when he was rescued and taken to the museum's research center in the federally protected Caxiuana National Forest. He was named after the local community that found him. Two years and several thousand milk bottles later, Bacuri has grown to about 130 pounds (60 kilos).
Three institutions are responsible for his care. The Goeldi Museum provides facilities and educates nearby communities. The federal Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation assigns two staffers for 15-day shifts to feed Bacuri three bottles of milk a day as well as chopped beets and carrots, and clean the pool every 48 hours. The nonprofit Instituto Bicho d'Agua— meaning institute of water animals in Portuguese — oversees veterinary care, dietary planning and caregiver training.
During their visit, the children learn that female manatees are pregnant for about a year then nurse their young for two more, feeding them from nipples behind their front flippers — the manatee equivalent of armpits. This long reproductive cycle is one reason the manatee population has not recovered from the commercial hunting that persisted until the mid-20th century.
They also learn the species is endangered and that they are the ones who must protect it.
“You are the main guardians,” biologist Tatyanna Mariúcha, head of the scientific base, tells the children, who spend the rest of the day drawing and making Play-Doh models of Bacuri.
With its auditorium, dormitories, observation towers, cafeteria and laboratories, the research station — two hours by speedboat from Portel, the nearest city — stands in stark contrast to nearby communities comprising clusters of wooden houses on stilts where families rely on cassava farming, fishing and harvesting açaí berries. School field trips and community outreach aim to narrow the gap.
“Caxiuana is their home,” Mariúcha told The Associated Press. “We can’t just come here and do things without their consent.”
Local knowledge will play a key role when Bacuri is finally released. He is the only manatee calf under care at Caxiuana. Once he has fully transitioned to a plant-based diet, he’ll spend time in a river enclosure before his release. That site will be selected based on where residents say wild manatees feed and pass through.
If all goes as planned, Bacuri will be the first released in the Caxiuana area. Two other calves rescued in poor health died in captivity, a sadly common outcome.
While subsistence hunting isn’t a major threat to the species, some fishermen still sell manatee meat illegally in nearby towns. Brazil banned hunting of all wild animals in 1967, with two exceptions: Indigenous peoples are allowed to hunt, and others can kill a wild animal to satisfy the hunger of the hunter or his family.
The threat of hunters has become harder to manage due to climate change, said Miriam Marmontel, a senior researcher at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, hundreds of miles (kilometers) upstream along the Amazon River.
Dozens of dolphins died near Mamiraua in 2023, likely due to soaring water temperatures during a historic drought. Manatees avoided mass mortality then because they typically inhabit deep pools during the dry season, but recent droughts have dramatically reduced the water level, making manatees more vulnerable to poachers.
“As climate change accelerates, manatees may begin to suffer from heat stress too,” Marmontel said. “They also have a thermal limit, and eventually it may be crossed.”
That’s why reintroduction efforts are so important.
Around 60 rescued manatees are being cared for across the state of Para, where Caxiuana is located. Bicho d’Agua is caring for four in partnership with the Federal University of Para and Brazil's environmental agency. One of the four, named Coral, was found near Óbidos and airlifted 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) to the institute's facility in Castanhal. She arrived dehydrated and with severe skin burns, likely from sun exposure.
“The population has declined so much that every hunted animal impacts the species,” Renata Emin, president of Bicho d’Agua, told AP. “That’s why any effort matters, not just because one individual may return to the wild and help rebuild the population but because of the community and government engagement it inspires.”
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Maria, a rescued manatee, swims in a pool at the Bicho d'Agua project facilities in Castanhal, Brazil, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Coral, a rescued manatee, is fed while in a pool at the Bicho d'Agua project facilities in Castanhal, Brazil on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Coral, a rescued manatee, swims in a pool at the Bicho d'Agua project facilities in Castanhal, Brazil, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Coral, a rescued manatee, sleeps belly up in a pool at Bicho d'Agua project facilities in Castanhal, Brazil, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Coral, a rescued manatee, receives healing cream from an assistant at a pool at Bicho d'Agua project facilities in Castanhal, Brazil, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Workers clean a pool near Bacuri, a rescued manatee, at the Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific station in Para state, Brazil, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Children make manatee models out of Play-Doh during a trip to Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific station in Para state, Brazil, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Bacuri, a rescued manatee, swims as children observe in the Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific base at Caxiuana National Forest in Para state, Brazil, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
A girl embraces biologist Tatyanna Mariúcha, head of the Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific base, as children arrive at the station in the Caxiuana National Forest in Para state, Brazil, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
The Curua River crosses the Caxiuana National Forest with Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific station at bottom in Para state, Brazil, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Children arrive at the Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific station in the Caxiuana National Forest in Para state, Brazil, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Bacuri, a rescued manatee, breathes while swimming in a pool at the Emilio Goeldi Museum's scientific station in the Caxiuana National Forest in Para state, Brazil, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
