QUEENS — Hampered by uncharacteristic mistakes that had the Mets staring down the barrel of a two-game sweep at the hands of the crosstown-rival Yankees on Wednesday night at Citi Field, Brandon Nimmo harkened back to the philosophy of the fictional, inspirational soccer coach, Ted Lasso.
“You can’t get down on yourself and you have to come back the next day like the whole Ted Lasso thing and be a goldfish,” he began. “You have to have a short-term memory.”
The veteran center fielder salvaged a Subway Series split with a 10th-inning, walk-off double to lift the Mets to a 4-3 victory after being at the epicenter of two major mishaps against the Bronx Bombers.
Nimmo first missed an Anthony Volpe fly ball that directly led to Josh Donaldson’s sixth-inning, game-winning sacrifice fly in a 7-6 Mets loss on Tuesday night. In the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s series finale with the Mets trailing 3-2 after Nimmo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run with two outs, Starling Marte punched a single to left field that tied the game. Nimmo, who was on first, bounded around second and was halfway down the line when he saw the runner in front of him, Mark Vientos, had been held up at third.
He couldn’t get back to second in time or evade the tag of second baseman DJ LeMahieu despite a swim move that prompted an unsuccessful challenge from manager Buck Showalter to end the inning and kill the rally.
“My initial thought beforehand, my preparation, was on a base hit, we’re going because we’re tying the game and I’ve been an outfielder before and you have to make a perfect throw in a very pressured situation,” Nimmo said. “And I was thinking, ‘OK unless the ball is one-hopped to a guy, we’re going.’ and then I’m just going to try and draw a throw, see if [the third baseman] Donaldson will take an out for the runner. If not, he’s risking the ball getting by and giving up a run, and not getting the out.
“So that was the thinking there. I like my thinking, it was aggressive. And I think it was, in that situation, I like it. But other things happened in front that didn’t allow that.”
While the swim move didn’t work — and science has debunked that goldfish actually have a 10-second memory — Nimmo found a way to put his previous mistakes behind him to launch a Nick Ramirez 0-1 sinker over right fielder Oswaldo Cabrera’s head and off the right-field wall to score ghost runner Eduardo Escobar from second base.
“I let the team down and I felt really, really bad about that,” Nimmo said of his gaffes. “I told the guys when I was coming up in [the 10th inning] that I was going to get the opportunity to come through for the boys. Baseball is funny like that… I was able to come through for the boys and I was really happy about that because… I felt like I let them down.”
Nimmo’s game-winner also helped make up for other careless play from his Mets teammates, especially in the seventh inning. Reliever Jeff Brigham walked and hit the first two batters he faced in a 1-1 game, Jeff McNeil’s throw on a double play attempt was too wide for Vientos at first to handle, thus bringing in the go-ahead run.
Catcher Francisco Alvarez threw wildly into center field allowing base-stealer Isiah Kiner-Falefa to advance to third. Moments later, the Yankees speedster stole home on unassuming lefty reliever Brooks Raley — who was called in to try and clean up Brigham’s mess — to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.
To Showalter, it was a byproduct of a team being a bit too tense and trying to do too much amidst a stretch in which they had lost nine of their previous 10 games.
“Sometimes you want something too much and you’re trying to figure out a way to make it happen because they’re wired to go get something, to go make something happen and go after it,” Showalter said. “We talk all the time, if you feel something, go for it. Don’t go back to the hotel or the apartment or the house and say ‘Gosh, I wish I trusted my instincts and went for something.’ You can’t do that at this level. Guys are too good.
“You’ve got to push the envelope and it’s just understanding when to push it whether it’s trying to tag on a ball, whether it’s trying to make somebody throw you out at third base… If you go to the purity of what’s happening, you understand it, but it’s hard to tell guys to back off or don’t try too hard. That’s a really hard message.”
