'A really cool day': Nimmo hits key blast in 5-for-5 outburst
Anthony DiComo
@AnthonyDiComoLOS ANGELES -- As recently as the morning of April 12, Brandon Nimmo?was batting .188. His on-base percentage was predictably healthy, thanks to his trademark plate discipline. But in a small sample, hits were not falling for the Mets¡¯ everyday leadoff hitter.
He¡¯s making up for it now -- and then some. Nimmo homered as part of a 5-for-5 game in the Mets¡¯ 5-3 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday afternoon, his second career five-hit game and his first since Aug. 5, 2018, in Baltimore.
¡°He¡¯s something to watch,¡± manager Buck Showalter said. ¡°He¡¯s playing as good as I¡¯ve seen him play right now, and he¡¯s played good for a long time.¡±
Nimmo singled but was erased on a double play in both the first and third innings against former teammate Noah Syndergaard, who was facing the Mets for the first time. Nimmo caused significantly more damage in the fifth, turning on Syndergaard's changeup and launching it a Statcast-projected 431 feet into the right-field bleachers to give New York a 2-1 lead. It was Nimmo¡¯s first home run since he signed an eight-year, $162 million contract in December, and the seventh-longest homer of his career.
¡°It was a really cool day,¡± Nimmo said. ¡°I was glad I was able to help out, help the team win, glad to be able to hit that home run there, give us the lead, kind of switch the momentum a little bit. Just a pretty cool day that I¡¯m trying to soak in.¡±
Nimmo wasn¡¯t done. In the seventh inning, he recorded an infield single, and in the ninth, he singled again and scored against Shelby Miller. The five hits boosted Nimmo¡¯s batting average to .349 -- nearly double what it was a week earlier, and a top-five mark in the National League. Less surprisingly, Nimmo ranks second in the Senior Circuit with a .481 on-base percentage while also topping the NL with 1.3 WAR, according to FanGraphs¡¯ calculation.
With the five-hit game, Nimmo became one of only four Mets to achieve that feat twice in a career, joining Keith Hernandez (three times), Mike Piazza and Rusty Staub. The franchise record for hits in a game is six, shared by Edgardo Alfonzo and Wilmer Flores.
¡°I¡¯ll never forget it, that¡¯s for sure,¡± Nimmo said. ¡°I didn¡¯t forget the other one, and [I] won¡¯t forget this. They just don¡¯t come around that often.¡±