Sad? Angry? Tired of reading about the Mets’ underachieving offense and Jacob deGrom’s hard luck?

We interrupt your justifiable misery by presenting two tiny moments that hinted at optimism about Francisco Lindor. Yes, one was a lineout, and one a foul ball during an at-bat that ended in a strikeout. But slumps sometimes end in quiet victories just like that.

In the eighth inning of the Mets’ 1-0 loss to Boston on Wednesday, Lindor smoked a 1-0 slider from Adam Ottavino to second base. Marwin Gonzalez caught it, and that was that.

Except it sometimes takes a confident swing like that to turn a good hitter around. And Lindor has experienced very few of those in 2021.

Prior to Thursday’s game, Lindor had barreled just one of 60 batted balls this season. Repeat: One of 60.

“I’m not getting the barrel to the baseball,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “As I’m getting to the baseball, I drop the barrel. Or as I’m getting to the baseball, I get around it. That’s pretty much it. I haven’t consistently this year got the barrel to the baseball.”

Hours later, his eighth-inning lineout came off the bat at 95.9 miles per hour. To manager Luis Rojas, who was clearly agitated after the game by the offense’s overall performance, Lindor’s hard out provided a moment of genuine hope.

“That was really good,” Rojas said. “He was committed to that pitch. He got it. He swung. He barreled it. I actually had a conversation with him pregame about staying aggressive. He was one of the first guys who told me, ‘I’m not being aggressive enough of the time. Being in between is what’s causing me to chase or take emergency swings even before he’s on a two-strike count.’ So that was good to see."

Even in a small sample, Lindor’s issues this year run deep. Neither stats nor scouts are impressed, and it was the same last season.

Rojas recently defended Lindor’s bat speed, and continues to insist that his shortstop is close to breaking out.

“I make this comment every day that he’s a swing away or a pitch away from getting hot,” Rojas said. “They way he does his routine, the way he works, and just the feel that he has for all the moving parts into his approach. You can tell that he’s that guy. He’s going to feel the swing.”

To Rojas, the progress actually began to show in an even less detectable moment, when Lindor fouled off a 1-2 pitch in the sixth inning before ultimately striking out.

“He hit it the other way after he took an emergency swing with two strikes," Rojas said. "That looked really good, balance-wise, with his lower half. And I think that’s where he is trying to get more direction with his lower half. I don’t know, maybe that translated to that at-bat. So hopefully he carries on and builds off [it] and stays consistent with that approach.”

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