Nick Plummer's HR ties it in 9th, Mets win in 10
Eduardo Escobar of the Mets celebrates his tenth-inning game winning base hit against the Phillies at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
“Pretty surreal,” Nick Plummer said. “Really, no words.”
This was after Plummer added the latest chapter to a library worth of Mets drama in 2022 — and it’s only Memorial Day.
The latest turn came late Sunday night in the form of a 5-4 victory over the Phillies in which the Mets blew a lead in the eighth inning, tied it in the ninth on Plummer’s leadoff home run and won it on a walk-off double by Eduardo Escobar in the 10th.
The sweep of the Phillies gave the Mets a 32-17 record and an 8 ½-game lead over second-place Atlanta at the season’s first major milepost.
Nick Plummer?! He was making his first career start, earlier in the game had misplayed a ball in leftfield that led to a Phillies run and was 0-for-3 at the plate.
Then out of nowhere came a home run into the second deck in rightfield off a Corey Knebel fastball.
It was Plummer’s first major league hit and made him the first Met to homer for his first hit since, wait for it . . . current Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, who did it 10 years earlier to the day — also at Citi Field and also against the Phillies.
“Jeremy Hefner? Really?” manager Buck Showalter said. “Only in baseball.”
Regarding Plummer, Showalter said, “Big moment for him, let alone us.”
Said Plummer, “It was cool just to be in there.”
He is a 25-year-old who began his career with the Cardinals’ organization, signed with the Mets last autumn and since has spent time in both the majors and minors.
Plummer said he was sitting on a fastball from Knebel and knew it would stay fair as soon as he hit it.
The Mets retrieved the ball from a fan in exchange for some signed materials from Plummer, who said he planned to give the ball to his parents.
It was a crushing loss for Joe Girardi’s Phillies (21-27), who fell behind 3-0 in a messy first inning and were trailing 3-1 with two outs in the eighth when Nick Castellanos hit a three-run home run to leftfield on an 0-and-2 pitch from Adam Ottavino to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead.
The Mets’ late-inning magic then reappeared with Plummer’s homer.
In the top of the 10th, Escobar made a brilliant catch of a foul pop-up by Kyle Schwarber to help keep the Phillies from scoring.
In the bottom of the inning, the Phillies walked Pete Alonso for the third time in the game — the second intentionally — to get to Escobar, who was 0-for-4 at the time.
He doubled to rightfield to drive in Starling Marte from second base with the winning run.
“One swing changed everything,” Escobar said.
“It happens because we believe in it,” said Mets starter Chris Bassitt, who had a solid outing, allowing one run, two hits and three walks and striking out seven in six innings.
Before the game, Showalter acknowledged that he looks at the standings, even at this early stage of the season, saying, “I mean, heck, there it is. That’s what we’re all competing for. I know we’re in first place.”
But he also has been around long enough to know nothing is guaranteed. He’s keeping a wary eye on the posse that will chase the Mets — or at least try to — in the coming weeks.
“I look at it as a given that they’re going to be there,” he said of the Mets’ division rivals. “I see so many good teams in our division; they’re going to find their level.”
Showalter knows that the night before Memorial Day, three days before June and three weeks before summer is too soon to chill the champagne.
But so far, so good.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
