WASHINGTON (AP) — Brandon Nimmo got a chance to go over his breakout performance with New York Mets first base coach Antoan Richardson.
With a grand slam and nine RBIs on the day, there was a lot to talk about.
“He’s like ‘Well, nine ribbies, that’s got to be a career high, right?’” Nimmo said. “And I was like ‘Yeah, that definitely is.’ I didn’t know it tied (a) franchise record, but I did know how many RBIs I had. I think before this my career high was five and that was an amazing day as well. These days don’t come around that often and you kind of sit back and enjoy it.”
Nimmo's performance powered the Mets to a 19-5 victory over the Washington Nationals. He equaled the franchise record for RBIs set by Carlos Delgado in the first game of a doubleheader against the New York Yankees on June 27, 2008.
The 32-year-old outfielder hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning and his second career slam in the seventh. He also doubled home two runs in the eighth.
He became the third player with nine or more RBIs in a three-inning span within a game since RBI became an official statistic in 1920, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He joined Iván Rodríguez in the first three innings on April 13, 1999, and Sammy Sosa in the third through fifth innings on Aug. 20, 2002.
Nimmo finished with four hits in his seventh career multihomer game, raising his batting average from .192 to .218. He hit .149 (7 for 47) with no extra-base hits in his previous 12 games.
“He’s a really good player,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s a good hitter. At some point, you know those guys are going to come out of it. It’s part of a big league season where at times it’s going to be hard. And then you’ll see games like this. Hopefully, we’ll start seeing the Nimmo we all know.”
Nimmo’s previous career high was five RBIs at Atlanta on April 8, 2024.
He went deep four times in his first 14 games this year, but he had struggled to produce since then. He had his first multihit game since April 13 in Friday’s series opener, then followed it up with back-to-back 0-for-4 performances.
“I’ve been hitting the ball harder lately, and that’s usually a good sign,” Nimmo said. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, usually. Just trying to stay with it and keep trusting that it would come along.”
Nimmo's sixth-inning homer off reliever Colin Poche bumped New York’s lead to 6-0, and his grand slam off Cole Henry made it 11-0. His two-run double against Eduardo Salazar extended New York’s advantage to 13-0.
Nimmo got another plate appearance in the ninth, but he grounded out right after Mark Vientos homered off infielder Amed Rosario.
“I was thinking ‘Man, it would be really cool to get double-digit RBIs in a day’ when I was coming up before Swaggy hit the three-run homer,” Nimmo said.
“Was not able to get over the top of that. But hey, it’s still really awesome to me all the same to be able to be in Mets history like that.”
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Patrick Stevens, The Associated Press
