Brandon Nimmo happy to come through for Mets with perfect night at plate
Brandon Nimmo’s gotten off to a bit of a slow start this season, but on Monday night, he had his hands all over the Mets’ thrilling 8-7 series-opening victory over the division-rival Atlanta Braves.
After singling and drawing a walk in his first two at-bats, Nimmo came to the plate in the top of the fifth with an opportunity to get his team back in the ballgame.
Braves starter Charlie Morton walked Jeff McNeil and Joey Wendle leading off the inning, and the star outfielder made sure to make him pay, as he demolished a monstrous two-run home run to deep right field to even things up at four.
It was Nimmo’s first longball of the year and it didn’t take him long to record his second.
After right-hander Cole Sulser gave Atlanta back the lead in the sixth, the 31-year-old helped the Mets even things up again, as he crushed a solo home run to dead center off fellow southpaw AJ Minter.
“He’s a great player,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “At some point, these guys are going to get going and tonight was a big one for Nimmo. The three-run homer he went big fly and then for him to go dead center against a tough lefty, that tells you how good of a player he is.”
Nimmo would pick up his fourth hit of the ninth in the top of the eighth, lining an RBI single to center after working a terrific at-bat, following DJ Stewart's go-ahead home run in a three-run inning.
Overall, he finished a perfect showing at the plate 4-for-4 with two homers and drove in five of the Mets' eight runs in a huge series-opening victory.
“It’s nice to come through,” Nimmo said. “It felt really good, both Charlie and Minter are amazing pitchers and that’s a really good team out there, so it felt good for some of them to fall where people can’t catch them.
“I feel like I’ve been swinging the bat well and hitting some balls hard but they haven’t quite fallen in, so I’m just trying to build on at-bats. That doesn’t mean I figured it out or the next game will be great, every game is a grind, but it’s always nice to come through when it happens.”
