WASHINGTON — New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo tied the franchise’s single-game RBI record on Monday, driving in nine in a 19-5 victory over the Washington Nationals.
Nimmo went 4-for-6 with two home runs — a grand slam and a three-run home run — and also scored four runs.
It was Nimmo’s second career grand slam and his seventh game with multiple home runs.
Nimmo’s nine RBIs tied the record set in 2008 by Carlos Delgado, who drove in nine in a game against the New York Yankees.
Nimmo became the 13th player in MLB history to record four hits, four runs and nine RBIs in a game.
After Nimmo recorded a two-run double in the eighth inning, Mets first base coach Antoan Richardson asked him, “Nine ribbies — that’s gotta be a career-high, right?”
Nimmo responded with a laugh, “Yeah. That definitely is.”
Nimmo’s previous career-high for RBIs in one game was five.
“These days don’t come around that often,” Nimmo said. “You just sit back and enjoy it.”
It wasn’t until immediately after the game that Nimmo learned he tied the club’s record.
“I had no idea,” Nimmo said. “I was thinking, ‘Man, it would be really cool to get double-digit RBIs in a day’ when I was coming up, possibly, before (Mark Vientos) hit the three-run home run.”
Nimmo gladly accepted the nine.
“It’s still really awesome to me all the same to be able to be in Mets history like that,” he said.
Nimmo broke out of a major slump with the best offensive game of his career.
Over his previous 12 games, Nimmo was hitting just 149. Over his prior 50 plate appearances heading into Monday’s game, he had failed to record an extra-base hit. On Sunday, he went 0-for-4 but had four hard-hit balls. Before Monday’s game, Nimmo’s hard-hit rate ranked in the top 6 percent, per Baseball Savant.
With the kind of wry smile that suggested he strongly believed Nimmo was overdue, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said before the game, “He’s not getting results, but he’s hitting the ball hard, you know? Yeah, it’s kind of weird. Obviously he knows, we know that he’s a better hitter than what he’s shown. But you always feel good about your chances when he’s at the plate.”
Good call.
“I said it before the game, he’s a really good player, he’s a good hitter, man,” Mendoza said. “At some point you know those guys are going to come out of it. Hopefully we start seeing the Nimmo that we all know.”
For the season, Nimmo owns a .218/.261/.418 slash line with six home runs and 21 RBIs. Nimmo mostly profiles as the Mets’ fourth or fifth batter, but he has dropped to sixth during some games, like on Monday. Before last season, Nimmo operated as the Mets’ leadoff batter. In the middle of the order these days, he no longer looks to see as many pitches and is using a more aggressive approach.
“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. … It’s great to have a day like today. It’s been a little bit frustrating. You never know when days like today may happen.”
The Mets’ lineup projects to be a deep one, but they need production from Nimmo, one of the club’s leaders. Behind his effort, the Mets (20-9) bounced back from a brutal loss Sunday. They split a four-game series with the Nationals and own baseball’s best record.
“When you’ve been around big-league baseball for a while, you’ve had that happen to you before,” Nimmo said. “That’s what helps us, the maturity the guys have. When you have leaders that aren’t panicking after that — and it’s well, ‘That’s baseball, let’s move on’ — I think it helps the younger guys to be able to feed off that as well.”
(Photo: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)
