Mets' Brandon Nimmo enters in seventh, hits walk-off two-run homer against Atlanta in ninth to avoid sweep
Brandon Nimmo of the Mets gets doused by teammates after hitting a walk-off two-run home run against Atlanta at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Errol Anderson
Welcome to the Late Show starring Brandon Nimmo.
Nimmo, who was not in the starting lineup on Sunday after leaving Saturday’s game with a strain in his right side, made a surprise pinch-running appearance in the seventh.
Then, with his team trailing by a run in the ninth, Nimmo cracked a 3-and-2 pitch over the fence in right-center for a walk-off two-run homer to give the Mets a 4-3 win over Atlanta before 18,944 at Citi Field.
Nimmo pinch ran for DJ Stewart in the seventh and stayed in to play leftfield. In the eighth, he made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Matt Olson of an extra-base hit and also made another catch running in.
Said Nimmo: “I’m really happy that everything worked out well today, the tests and everything, so that this moment could happen.”
Nimmo said he felt tightness in his right intercostal (a muscle between his ribs) on a check-swing in the third inning on Saturday. He left the game in the fourth.
It sure looked as if Nimmo was going to be a spectator all night, especially when he did an in-game Mother’s Day interview on ESPN with a surprise guest, his mother, Patti.
Before the game, Nimmo went through treatment and tests, the last of which was a vigorous session of indoor batting practice. Word filtered to manager Carlos Mendoza that Nimmo was not showing any signs of injury.
“I wanted to see it myself,” Mendoza said. “Really? Is he feeling that good?”
He was, but Mendoza said he wasn’t going to change the lineup. But he knew he had Nimmo as a weapon off the bench; in the Mets’ desperate bid to avoid a sweep, Mendoza used every available position player he had.
“There’s a lot of emphasis on not getting swept,” Nimmo said. “We want to win every single day, but today was really special, and obviously being able to kind of come from behind there at the end makes it even better.”
It was the second walk-off homer for Nimmo (also July 11, 2018 versus the Phillies) and the Mets’ fourth walk-off win of the season, tying them with Baltimore for most in the majors.
Atlanta took a 3-2 lead in the eighth on Marcell Ozuna’s single off Adam Ottavino.
Pete Alonso had an RBI single in the third and an RBI double in the sixth. Both hits tied the score.
Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the first on a home run by former Mets prospect Jarred Kelenic off Luis Severino. After the Mets tied it in the third, Atlanta went ahead again on Ozuna’s RBI single off Reed Garrett in the sixth. The run was charged to Severino, who needed 94 pitches to get through five innings plus two batters.
With Nimmo out of the lineup, Mendoza made the surprise move to install Stewart as the leadoff hitter and leftfielder against Atlanta righthander Bryce Elder. Stewart has been in the majors since 2018; it was the second time he’s started a game as the leadoff man.
Stewart came into the game batting .185 with four home runs, 16 RBIs and a .372 on-base percentage. He made Mendoza look like a genius when he singled on the first pitch of the bottom of the first, singled again with one out in the third and walked in the seventh.
Then Nimmo replaced Stewart at first base.
“If I had any concerns, he wasn’t going to play,” Mendoza said. “Not even in an emergency.”
Nimmo said the catch at the wall was a good test, as was the tough at-bat against A.J. Minter, which included a check-swing on a pitch outside before the one-out home run.
After Nimmo rounded the bases, he got the biggest test of all: hugs from his teammates.
“I got a lot of bear hugs,” he said. “If we weren’t sure enough that it was OK, we are now, because Francisco [Lindor] just about sucked the air out of me when he hugged me. It was a beautiful thing and I would do it all over again.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
