DENVER

You remember Francisco Lindor’s grand slam in Game 4 of last year’s NLDS, right — the one that essentially sent the Phillies packing.

Lindor, nursing an ailing back that forced him to miss what was, for him, significant time toward the end of the regular season, launched Carlos Estevez’s grooved fastball into the visitors’ bullpen at Citi Field in the eventual 4-1 victory.

The crowd was in a tizzy. The dugout erupted. And Lindor remained stone-faced as he rounded the bases.

Juxtapose that with his reaction when he led off the seventh inning of their win against the Dodgers on Wednesday: Behind in the count to Ben Casparius, he struck out swinging on a ball below the strike zone. He slammed his helmet. He barked a few choice words at no one in particular. And once the inning was over, he grabbed his glove and manned short.

We later got a pretty good sense of why Lindor, who seems to make a point of neither getting too high nor too low on the field, had such an outsized reaction. He had broken his right pinkie toe in the first inning of that game and was playing through the pain. The strikeout wasn’t just a small failure, it was a symbol of frustration — and, most likely, an indication that Lindor was wondering if he was going to have to do one of his least favorite things: sit out a baseball game.

Lindor was out of the lineup for the second day in a row Friday, with Ronny Mauricio taking over at shortstop, but he already was running and hitting in the cages. He said the general timeline for a fracture to heal is about six weeks but that he can play as long as he’s able to tolerate the pain.

Based on Carlos Mendoza’s comments, that could be sooner rather than later. Before Friday’s game against the Rockies, Mendoza indicated that Lindor potentially could be a bat off the bench.

“I feel a little bit better today than how I felt yesterday,” Mendoza said of Lindor’s availability. “I thought maybe give him the full series [off], but watching him today and talking to him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the lineup tomorrow or the next day.”

There are plenty of people who disagree with this course of action. Lindor is, of course, too valuable to lose for an extended time. He anchors a defense that’s looked shaky of late, is a firebrand out of the leadoff spot and leads the team in fWAR, the FanGraphs formula for wins above replacement.

And after going four bloody rounds with the Dodgers earlier this week, the next six games seem like light work. They have three against the Rockies, who rode a three-game winning streak into Friday that gave them a whopping 12 victories on the season. After that, they travel back to New York to take on the Nationals, who came into the day four games under .500.

But at this point, the Mets’ leader has earned the right to dictate his own fate. Team trainers wouldn’t give him the green light if there were any possibility of making things worse.

Granted, foot injuries can be tricky: Pain can influence mechanics, and when one part of the body is out of whack, other injuries can crop up.

But Mendoza’s logic seems sound: “Francisco knows his body better than anyone,” he said. Meaning that his shortstop, who’s dealt with his fair share of bumps and bruises en route to playing an average of about 158 games the last three seasons, can best gauge what’s best for him. And it just so happens that the man who, in 2023, had his paternity leave last a whole eight innings before rejoining the team thinks it’s best he stay on the field.

It’s a point of pride, a personal quirk and a form of leadership by example — within reason, of course.

“If I can tolerate the pain, yes, I’ll play,” he said earlier this week. “If I can’t, it would be unfair to play with 25 guys on the roster [and I’ll go on the injured list]. It’s not fair to the guys that are here.”

And that, at least, you can bank on. His single-minded goal of winning a championship means putting the collective good over the individual. So if Lindor says he can play, he can play.