Mets' Brandon Nimmo feels 'like there's more in the tank' amid recent hot stretch
Brandon Nimmo was the spark plug the Mets needed Monday night in St. Louis, as the outfielder started a rally in the fifth inning and then came through with a go-ahead home run to give the team a 4-3 win and snap a three-game losing streak.
Nimmo has had a rough start to the 2024 season at the plate, but has picked it up and is hitting .320 (8-for-25) with four RBI and a .560 SLG over his last seven games. He was asked after the win if he feels that he's starting to get going, and said that small adjustments and "staying the course" have helped.
"A little bit," Nimmo said. "I mean, I've been hitting the ball really well this whole season. I think Anthony [DiComo] wrote a little piece, throw that out there for ya, on how unlucky I've been, as far as slugging and everything goes. So you get here, it warms up a little bit. Tampa Bay, you're playing in a dome. When yesterday 94.6 (mph)gets out of the ballpark, it's a little bit better hitting conditions.
"I've felt like, 'Hey, it's coming around,' don't get me wrong, I still feel like there's more in the tank that I can get better at. But I also believe that we've just stayed the course and we've tried to make little, I'm talking small, small adjustments along the way. Not change too much. And with that, I got a couple good pitches to do something with tonight. Honestly, the home run that I hit was a good pitch and I just was able to get the barrel there, and that's something that gives you a lot of confidence. It's been coming, but also, I've just been kind of unlucky up to this point."
The article Nimmo referred to pointed out that entering last week, he was "by one statistical measure, the least fortunate hitter in Major League Baseball, with the largest 'unlucky gap' between his expected slugging percentage and his actual mark."
Nimmo acknowledged his frustrations, but also is fully aware that it's a long season and things will turn around. He reiterated that Monday, noting that the "little tweaks along the way" can be a big difference and have helped him have a strong stretch as of late.
"Just the littlest things. I mean I'm talking like, maybe the elbow position a little bit here, holding this, and maybe holding the finish in your practice. Just the littlest things. In baseball there's a lot of ebb and flow. You're going to get pitched certain ways by certain people and then that's going to flip in a month. It's this cat and mouse game that goes on all the time. It's just these little tweaks along the way, little tweaks to approaches, little tweaks to mechanical, they're not big changes. It's been good the last couple of weeks."
Nimmo went on to say he's never really noticed when he's on a "hot streak" and has learned to "stay the course" during his career to not get stuck in a funk.
"I just try to keep my head down and keep going. Just battle every day. Just cause you go 0-for-4 or 0-for-5 doesn't mean it's the end of it. Maybe they made good pitches, maybe you had the wrong approach. That's what I've been able to learn over the years now, not to panic when you have one or two bad days. Stay the course.
"As long as you're getting the right feedback from our analytics, all the devices at our disposal. Sometimes there's only so much you can do against big league pitching, so just stay the course."
