Mets' Brandon Nimmo redeems himself with walk-off win over Yankees

Aaron Boone didn’t quite believe the numbers that say Brandon Nimmo is mashing left-handed pitching this season, to the tune of a .337 batting average in that moment, so he made the textbook move and brought in lefty Nick Ramirez.

Two pitches later Nimmo backed up those numbers with a game-winning double off the right-field fence to walk-off the Yankees 4-3 in 10 innings at Citi Field on Wednesday night, and afterward he said he’ll leave it up to other teams to decide if they want to keep trying that strategy.

“That’s their call,” he said. “I’ve been hitting lefties for a few years now. Ever since I got together and talked with Todd Helton about it a few years ago, I’ve made changes that I think will last. If I have to keep proving it, I’ll keep proving it.”

Nimmo was standing at his locker, ever-present smile in place, smudges of eye-black on his cheek from being smothered in the game-winning celebration.

“Must be from Lindor,” he said of the eye black. “It was a great celebration. It meant a lot to come through for the boys.”

It was redemption for Nimmo, and he was the first to say it, though not to the extent everyone around his locker was thinking it. He was still upset about not making the catch on Anthony Volpe’s fly ball to shallow right-center on Tuesday night that proved pivotal in a loss, and desperately wanted the chance to make up for it.

“I felt terrible about that,” he said. “I felt I let the team down. So I wanted the chance to make up for it. Waiting to hit [in the 10^th inning], I told the guys I was glad I was going to get the opportunity to come through for the boys.

“Baseball is funny like that. You can’t get down on yourself because there’s always another opportunity.”

Speaking of which, the more immediate redemption seemed to be for his baserunning mistake in the seventh inning on Wednesday, when he was picked off after rounding second base too far, not realizing Mark Vientos was being held at third on Starling Marte’s game-tying single.

It was the kind of blunder that has haunted these Mets this season, and together with a couple of defensive gaffes in the seventh inning, nearly cost them this game against the Yankees.

The mistakes were so glaring, in fact, that even owner Steve Cohen tweeted, “Too many mental mistakes but I will take it.”

Funny thing, though: Nimmo insisted he didn’t make a mistake getting picked off, even though his out cut short the rally.

“I like my thinking there,” he said.

He went on to explain that with two outs, he was sure Vientos would be sent from second base with the go-ahead run on Marte’s single to left.

“I was fully expecting us to go there,” he said. “I know, as an outfielder in that situation you have to make a perfect throw in a pressure situation and it’s not easy. So unless it was a one-hop liner to the outfielder, I just knew we’d be going so I wanted to try and draw a throw to third and trade an out for the run. I was surprised how things unfolded.”

Which meant he was surprised that third base coach Joey Cora held up Vientos.

And Cora probably should have been more aggressive in that situation, with two outs, but it still doesn’t forgive Nimmo. Even if he’s right in theory, he should have had his head up as he rounded second and been looking to see if the runner is being held.

“I’m ok with it,” Nimmo said again, still smiling.

If it didn’t quite make sense, the night still ultimately belonged to the Mets’ center fielder.

As he said, “When you win it makes everything better. You can look at the mistakes we made as a team and learn from them. I think we’ve all been trying to do a little too much to get us out of this rut we’re in, and maybe this win will help us get back to playing the way we can.”

We’ll see. The mistakes are concerning, a stark contrast to last year when Buck Showalter received credit for changing the culture around the Mets, making them look like a team whose manager is famous for his exhausting preparation.

Maybe, as Nimmo suggested, the worst is over for these Mets. If so, much of the thanks went to their center fielder and his dedication to making himself better over the years.

Part of that dedication was seeking out Helton, the former All-Star for the Colorado Rockies whom Nimmo idolized as a kid growing up in Wyoming. He said he made an off-handed comment about a few years ago in spring training about how Helton would be the one player he’d like to talk to in his quest to make himself better.

“The [Denver] media actually helped me get in touch with him,” Nimmo said. “He’s kind of a recluse but somebody got in touch with him and he said he’d be happy to talk to me.

“So I had phone call with him and a lot of it was about how well he hit left-handed pitching. He gave me pointers on how I could prepare, talked about some of my weaknesses. He got me to be more compact and be better with my decision-making. A lot of things that I’ve built on from there and I feel will have a long-term effect. I feel like I turned the corner in ’21 and I’ve been getting better and better.”

He hit .306 against left-handed pitching in 2021, then .269 last year, and this season it has all come together for him, to the point where there seems to be nothing fluky about his success vs. lefties.

Maybe next time Boone will stick with the righthander.