Francisco Lindor gifted the Mets a gutsy Game 2 guideline

LOS ANGELES — The Mets, as they often do in digging holes for themselves, looked dead on Sunday.

Their pitching was crushed. Their hitting was silent. Their baserunning was bizarre.

The Mets, as they often do in climbing out of those holes, immediately found a pulse Monday, and as is so often the case, it was Francisco Lindor applying the paddles to the chest.

The leadoff hitter repeatedly has injected life into the lineup and did so one more time in the 7-3, NLCS-tying Game 2 victory at Dodger Stadium.

The deep Los Angeles pitching staff had strung together 33 consecutive scoreless innings to match a postseason record established by the 1966 Orioles.

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Against arms that looked untouchable a night earlier, Lindor ensured that record was not broken .

With one masterful at-bat that was part guts and part artist-at-work, Lindor fought for seven pitches before sending the eighth pitch, a cutter over the plate, into the Mets bullpen in right field .

That first run “just makes me breathe a little bit,” said Sean Manaea, who could be speaking for the entire dugout and held a lead that the Mets staff would not give up.

Lindor set the tone not just by homering but by fighting for each pitch.

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He worked against Dodgers opener Ryan Brasier and fouled off four straight offerings.

One of those caromed off his leg, Lindor having to walk off the pain.

When he returned to the batter’s box, he became the first Met to lead off a postseason game with a homer since Curtis Granderson in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series.

“I was just trying to have a quality at-bat and get the guys going,” said Lindor, who managed to not crack a smile when asked about snapping the Dodgers’ streak. “[Reporters] have done a great job of not mentioning it to me, so I didn’t really know it.”

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Given a chance, Lindor came through.

Denied a chance in his next plate appearance, when the Dodgers intentionally walked him to load the bases with two outs, it was Mark Vientos who came through with the grand slam that lessened, if not eliminated, some drama from the rest of the day.

Vientos battled in the same kind of at-bat that Lindor had authored: He fouled off five pitches before drilling the ninth pitch of the fight over the center field wall.

“Not just because of the homer, but the way he attacked him,” Carlos Mendoza said of Lindor’s game-opening moment. “Fouled off a couple of pitches, laid off a couple of breaking balls and got a pitch and drove it to set the tone.”

Lindor, playing through a bad back and playing every single day, reached base twice in five plate appearances and continues to play a solid shortstop.

As Dodgers fans serenade Shohei Ohtani with “MVP” chants during every one his at-bats, the likely runner-up for the award is showing why he is, at the very least, the Mets’ MVP.

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