Mets avoid sweep, eye momentum with walk-off win over Braves
Is Sunday's win over the divisional rival Braves, a 4-3 walk-off in which Brandon Nimmo was the hero, what the Mets need to get back over the .500 mark?
This week's four-game stretch with the NL East-leading Phillies, who are 28-13 after a 7-6 loss at the Miami Marlins in 10 innings, will tell more of the story.
But for now, New York (19-20) avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of Atlanta (24-13) -- a result that reverberated through the home clubhouse at Citi Field.
"Obviously, the Braves are a great team -- and we know that," said Nimmo, who got just enough of A.J. Minter's full-count cutter at 90 mph for a two-run homer with one out in the ninth inning. "If you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. And that's something that we were trying to do today, really come to the park ready to go, ready to win like we do every day. But there's a lot of emphasis on not getting swept.
"We want to win every single day. But today was really special and, obviously, to be able to kind of come from behind there at the end makes it even better."
Jeff McNeil, whose leadoff bunt single put the game-winning run on base with Nimmo at the plate, echoed his teammate.
"We needed this one," he said. "We're grinding. Everyone on this team's grinding right now. So we'll take any win where we can get it, and this is a big one."
In addition to McNeil's savvy move and Nimmo's subsequent heroics, the Mets received two-hit games from Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Also notably, J.D. Martinez added a single in his first at-bat of the night.
"We know that we haven't gotten those guys going at the same time, but I said it before the game today -- it'll come around," said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza. "And I'm pretty confident that we're getting close. Pete's showing signs now -- I do think that he's getting there. Lindor, obviously, the past couple of weeks, J.D. -- and then we've just got to get a couple of the other guys.
"Once we get going, it could be really fun here."
