Brandon Nimmo stood in the batter’s box and took a pitch, but most of the attention of the announced 29,400 in attendance was directed elsewhere.
Some looked in the Mets dugout, where a celebration raged.
Some were exchanging high fives. Many — an increasing number of fans who are growing increasingly loud of late — chanted “M! V! P!” after Francisco Lindor’s 30th home run of the season gave his team a lead it would not return.
Lindor’s MVP case is strengthening.
What might solidify that bid would be for his excellent regular season to translate into a postseason appearance for the Mets.
There are still weeks to play, but Lindor is threatening to carry his club into October.
His two-run home run began the scoring, and his eighth-inning RBI double added a cushion in an eventual 7-2 win over the Red Sox at a boisterous Citi Field on Tuesday night.
Hours beforehand, David Stearns — whose job essentially is to identify and evaluate value — was asked what the Most Valuable Player looked like.
He did not mention Shohei Ohtani.
“I think he looks like the guy who runs out to shortstop at 7:00,” Stearns said before the Mets (75-64) won a sixth straight.
In a season in which he has not missed a game, of course Lindor was at shortstop at 7.
Less than an hour later, he turned on a 2-1 cutter from Kutter Crawford and sent it towering into right field, clearing the wall for a two-run shot in the third inning that cracked into what had been a scoreless game.
The 30-year-old now has five 30-homer seasons, only eclipsed by Alex Rodriguez (seven) as a shortstop.
He pushed his on-base streak to 32 games and hit streak to 14 games, the latter in which he owns a 21-for-58 (.362) line with six homers, six doubles and 12 RBIs.
Lindor’s dinger got the party started, and a solo shot from Mark Vientos in the seventh helped.
The Mets ran away from what had been a competitive game in the eighth, when Lindor smacked an opposite-field double to drive in one and intensify those “MVP” chants.
After a sacrifice fly from Nimmo, Pete Alonso crushed his 31st homer of the season to eliminate plenty of the drama that had seemed imminent a frame earlier.
After six strong, one-run innings from David Peterson, Jose Butto pitched a scoreless seventh and walked two to begin the top of the eighth.
In came Reed Garrett to face Rafael Devers, who reached on a rare misplay by Lindor.
The shortstop grabbed a slow chopper up the middle and took a few steps toward second base, realizing too late he had no shot at an out there.
He then threw to first too late for Devers.
With the bases loaded and none out, Garrett allowed just one run.
Enmanuel Valdez sent a sacrifice fly into right before Masataka Yoshida grounded into a double play, a fired-up Garrett getting out of trouble.
Ryne Stanek finished off the job that Peterson started.
Peterson was not just excellent but dominant over six innings in which 11 of his 18 outs came via strikeout.
The lefty celebrated his 29th birthday by setting his career-high in strikeouts and letting up one run on six hits and a walk.
As has become common in his season, he occasionally danced into trouble and often struck his way out of it.
The Red Sox had five at-bats with runners in scoring position against Peterson and only connected for a hit once — which might deserve an asterisk.
Boston’s only run against the southpaw came in the fifth, when Yoshida reached second and scored on a bloop single from Nick Sogard that fell in front of center fielder Nimmo, who got a late break on the ball.
Peterson saw better results when he didn’t bother allowing the ball to be put in play.
Of 20 Red Sox swings against his four-seamer, 14 were whiffs and just two were put into play (both weakly).
Boston could have added on after Sogard’s gift hit fell, and Rob Refsnyder singled to put two on.
But with two on and two outs against star Jarren Duran, Peterson’s fastball induced one more swing and miss to escape danger on a night his ERA fell to 2.75.
