Lindor slams Phillies again and buries memory of slow start in 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Francisco Lindor is off to a smashing start, for a change.

And on Monday night, he picked up right where he left off against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The star shortstop stayed red-hot by homering twice and finishing with four RBIs as the New York Mets held off their NL East rivals 5-4 in the opener of a three-game series.

New York (16-7) extended its division lead to three games over Philadelphia in the first meeting between the teams since last October, when the Mets eliminated the Phillies from the playoffs with a 4-1 victory in Game 4 of their Division Series at Citi Field.

Lindor delivered the knockout blow in that one with a sixth-inning grand slam. This time, he launched his second consecutive leadoff homer and then a three-run shot in the seventh that landed around the same spot in right-center as his pivotal drive in the NLDS.

“Pretty similar to what happened last year,” Mets pitcher Tylor Megill said.

It was the 20th multihomer game for Lindor at shortstop. The only players with more are Alex Rodriguez (33) and Ernie Banks (24).

The four-time All-Star has four home runs in the last four games, including a walk-off shot. He's batting .325 with five homers and 13 RBIs since he went 0 for 11 in the first series of the season against the Houston Astros.

“That was nasty,” Lindor said. “They got me. They got me. It’s in the past.”

So, too, are the memories of last year’s lengthy slump to begin the season. Lindor went 1 for 31 in New York's first eight games of 2024 and was hitting .195 through 44 games before moving into the leadoff spot May 18.

He batted .304 with 26 homers and 70 RBIs the rest of the way and finished second behind Shohei Ohtani in NL MVP balloting.

“I think he’s just focusing on the process, not so much results,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I think when you start thinking about, well, I’ve always been a slow starter and the more you think about it — as opposed to (saying), you know what? I’m going to prepare, I’m going to do everything I need to before the game and then I’m going to go out and compete and concentrate on having quality at-bats, concentrate on playing quality defense, as opposed to trying too hard or just having that in the back of your mind."

Lindor sent Sonny Gray’s fourth pitch into the second deck in right field Sunday and finished with three hits and three runs in a 7-4 victory over St. Louis.

He followed that up by driving Aaron Nola's fifth pitch off the facing of the second deck in right Monday. That gave Lindor 23 career leadoff homers, including three this season, and he joined Kaz Matsui (2004) and Curtis Granderson (2017) as the only Mets players to hit one in consecutive games.

“He’s free in a way where it’s like, you know what? I’m just going to be myself. And that’s what he’s doing right now. He’s getting results,” Mendoza said.

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New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) signs baseballs for fans before a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

New York Mets' Francisco Lindor celebrates with teammates after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Monday, April 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with Tyrone Taylor (15) after a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Monday, April 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto, center, looks away as New York Mets' Luisangel Acuña, left, celebrates with Francisco Lindor, right, after Lindor hit a three-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game Monday, April 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) follows through on a three-run home run during the seventh inningof a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Monday, April 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with teammates Tyrone Taylor (15) ad Luisangel Acuña (2) after they scored on a three-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Monday, April 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) reacts as he runs the bases after hitting a three-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Monday, April 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

DENVER (AP) — A soldier present at an after-hours nightclub where more than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally were taken into custody last weekend has been charged with distributing cocaine, court records show.

Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, who is assigned to Fort Carson, an Army post near the illegal club in Colorado Springs, was arrested Wednesday evening, the FBI said in a statement.

Orona-Rodriquez has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to an arrest affidavit. It said he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration days before the raid.

Orona-Rodriguez — a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team in the 4th Infantry Division — appeared briefly in federal court in Denver Thursday afternoon.

Dressed in camouflage pants and a khaki T-shirt and holding court documents in his handcuffed hands, Orona-Rodriguez listened as the magistrate judge explained his rights and agreed to appoint a public defender to represent him.

At the request of a federal prosecutor, Orona-Rodriguez will continue to be held until a hearing to discuss his detention on Tuesday. His lawyer, Josh Lilley, did not address the allegations against him during the hearing.

The FBI said the arrest followed an investigation by the DEA, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and officials at Fort Carson.

More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies participated in Sunday’s operation at the nightclub, which had been under investigation for months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.

Cocaine was among the drugs found, Pullen said at a news conference.

Orona-Rodriquez was one of about 17 active-duty U.S. Army service members who were at the club, known as Warike, when it was raided early Sunday, the affidavit said.

He appears to have held a leadership role in a business that provides armed security at nightclubs, including at Warike, according to the document. However, it did not say whether he was working security there at the time of the raid. It notes that he had been warned by his commanding officer this spring that he could not work for the security company.

Rodriguez received more than a dozen Army awards during his almost nine years in service, including an Army Commendation Medal with combat device, which is earned during a deployment where the soldier was “performing meritoriously under the most arduous combat conditions,” according to Army descriptions of the award.

Of the 17 soldiers who were at the venue at the time of the raid, 16 were patrons and one was working there in a security role, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. Sixteen of the soldiers there were assigned to Fort Carson, the official did not know where the seventeenth was assigned.

Investigators suspect Orona-Rodriguez was getting cocaine from an unidentified Mexican citizen who is “unlawfully present in the United States without admission,” according to the affidavit.

President Donald Trump posted a link to the DEA video of the raid on his social media site, Truth Social. “A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” the president wrote.

Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officers stop a patron from a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)

In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a law enforcement officer with a weapon drawn is shown at a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)