Mets' Brandon Nimmo expects to miss only one game with strained right side
Mets leftfielder Brandon Nimmo bats against Atlanta during the first inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Brandon Nimmo was out of the lineup on Sunday night as the Mets hosted Atlanta. But the news about the Mets’ leftfielder and his strained right side was better than expected when Nimmo left Saturday’s game in the fourth inning.
“It's a little, like, sore,” Nimmo said. “So it's as if you worked out on it or something like that. Maybe a little too much. But other than that, it’s pretty good.”
Nimmo said he’s “very hopeful” he can play Monday against the Phillies as long as he’s able to swing a bat without discomfort.
Nimmo said he knew he wasn’t going to start Sunday after speaking with manager Carlos Mendoza on Saturday.
“He’s like, ‘No, it’s May and we need you,’ ” Nimmo said. “I respect that and really appreciate that coming from our manager. But that’s the way it’s supposed to work. I’m supposed to want to play and he supposed to [say no].”
Said Mendoza: “I’m pretty optimistic. We caught it early and then we were able to treat it [Saturday] night and he's feeling good today. Talking to him, he's like, ‘Give me the night off and then see how I feel tomorrow.’ So I said, ‘We’re not taking any chances here. Let's see how you wake up tomorrow and we'll go from there.’ But everything today continued to move in the right direction.”
Nimmo said he felt tightness in his right intercostal (a muscle between his ribs) on a check-swing an inning before he departed Saturday’s game.
“I didn’t feel it at all running out to the outfield,” he said. “The main concern was I was going to have to check-swing again at some point.”
With Nimmo out, Mendoza made the surprise move to install DJ Stewart as Sunday’s 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 (and singled again with one out in the third).
“Obviously, this is guy that’s going to control the strike zone,” Mendoza said. “He gets on base. He’ll do damage. Just trying to mix some things up with a lot of the lefties that we’ve got today. I like the matchup of our lefties against their guy tonight.”
The Mets went into the game looking to avoid a three-game sweep. The Mets scored a total of three runs in the first two games and were no-hit for 8 2/3 innings on Saturday before J.D. Martinez homered.
“They're going through it right now,” Mendoza said of his hitters. “We're going through a stretch where guys are struggling a little bit, but I'm not too concerned because they're good hitters. They're good hitters, and at the end of the day, their numbers are going to be there . . . They'll come out of it. They'll be fine and we'll get going here pretty soon.”
One guy who appears to be coming out of it is Pete Alonso, who on Sunday had an RBI single in the third inning and an RBI double in the sixth off Elder. Both runs tied the game.
Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the first on a home run by Jarred Kelenic off Luis Severino. After the Mets tied it in the third, Atlanta went ahead again on Marcell 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. The game went to the seventh tied at 2.
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.
