Brandon Nimmo's homer leads Mets past Cardinals

ST. LOUIS — In a jolly postgame Mets clubhouse Monday night, backup outfielder and frequent one-liner provider Tyrone Taylor had another, leaning over to his locker neighbor and saying in more than a whisper: “Are you Brandon Barrels? Or Brandon Nimmo?”

Nimmo, the hero of the day, laughed. Lately, he has been both.

He walloped a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning of a 4-3 win over the Cardinals, the latest sign that he is coming around after a relatively quiet start to the season.

In his past 11 games, Nimmo is batting .317 with six extra-base hits, seven RBIs and six runs. His average remains low — .228 — but his .770 OPS is second-highest on the Mets, trailing DJ Stewart (.813).

Nimmo framed that production as an inevitable turn of luck. He has hit the ball well basically all season, he said, but for a while it just didn’t work out results-wise. Now it is beginning to improve.

“It’s been coming,” Nimmo said. “But also, I’ve just been kind of unlucky up to this point.”

Manager Carlos Mendoza said: “It’s just a matter of now he’s getting results. It starts with controlling the strike zone. He’s one of the better ones in the game.”

Along the way, Nimmo changed “the littlest things” in his approach, from the positioning of his elbow to holding his finish on swings in practice, he said.

The little things yielded a big thing in the series opener at Busch Stadium — and at a most opportune time, the half-inning after the Mets (17-18) blew a three-run lead.

Righthander Andrew Kittredge, one of St. Louis’ late-game shutdown relievers, left a slider over the inner third of the plate, and Nimmo hooked it into the rightfield stands. That sent the Cardinals (15-20) to their fifth loss in six games.

“Honestly, the home run that I hit was a good pitch,” he said. “I just was able to get the barrel there. That’s something that really gives you a lot of confidence.”

Setting up the late excitement were comparable efforts by Mets lefthander Sean Manaea and Cardinals righthander Kyle Gibson, who had matching lines: six innings, three runs.

Staked to a 3-0 lead, Manaea gave it back in the bottom of the sixth. Willson Contreras ended the shutout bid with an RBI double down the leftfield line. Ivan Herrera’s two-out, two-run double eked its way past Nimmo to tie the score.

Much better for Manaea (3.31 ERA) this time around: his control of the strike zone. One walk represented his lowest total in that column in any start this season; entering the game, he was averaging 5.5 walks per nine innings, more than double his career average.

“That was incredible,” Manaea said of his strike-throwing ability. “No walks, attacking guys. I felt really good about that.”

Mendoza said: “That was the plan. Going into the game, it was like, let’s attack — and then stay on the attack. And he did that today.”

The Mets struck for a run in the first inning on Stewart’s two-out double. They added two more in the fifth after a pair of singles and Lars Nootbaar’s fielding error set them up with two runners in scoring position and none out. Starling Marte came through with an RBI groundout and Francisco Lindor hit a sacrifice fly.

Pete Alonso was out of the starting lineup for the first time this season, but Mendoza inserted him at first base in the bottom of the sixth. The manager sought to give him a day off — or part of a day off — because of his slump, including a 1-for-his-last-29 run entering the day. Alonso added an 0-for-1 to that against the Cardinals.

“I told him I’d much rather be in there than not,” he said before the game. “But I totally respect his decision.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.