Brandon Nimmo breaks out with 9-RBI day as Mets steamroll Nationals

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Apr 28, 2025

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — The Mets found Nimmo. Or maybe it was Brandon Nimmo who found himself again.

The Mets’ team leader, who came into Monday’s game against the Washington Nationals hitting below the Mendoza line, drove in nine runs in a 19-5 win at Nationals Park, tying Carlos Delgado for the club record in single-game RBIs.

Moved down to No. 6 in the order after hitting cleanup earlier in the season, Nimmo went 4 for 6 with a three-run homer, a grand slam and a two-run double. He scored a run in the first before going on to hit long balls off of left-hander Colin Poche and right-hander Cole Henry in the sixth and seventh innings, and a double off Eduardo Salazar in the eighth.

A big lead gave a beleaguered bullpen a chance to breathe.

Jeff McNeil went 2 for 5 with a home run, a triple and three RBIs in just his fourth game back from an oblique strain, and Juan Soto, Francisco Alvarez, Pete Alonso, Jesse Winker and Luisangel Acuña all had multi-hit games. There were contributions from up and down the order as the Mets became the first team of the season to win 20 games (20-9).

Facing former Mets right-hander Trevor Williams in the bottom of the second, Mark Vientos and Nimmo set the table with back-to-back one-out singles. Francisco Alvarez drove a double to the right-field corner to score Vientos and put the Mets on the board, 1-0.

McNeil then worked a 10-pitch at-bat, sending two line drives down the right side that landed just foul. Finally, he put a ball in play, allowing Nimmo to come home on a sacrifice fly. He then made it 3-0 in the fifth when he teed off on the first pitch he saw from Williams and put it into the stands for his first home run of the season.

Nimmo’s fireworks came in the top of the sixth.

Williams (1-3) issued one-out walks to Winker and Vientos before the Nats (13-16) went to the bullpen for a left-hander to counter the left-handed Nimmo. Poche tried to get him to chase a slider in the dirt, but he didn’t blink. He then threw a fastball high for ball two, setting up Nimmo for a big swing on the third pitch.

He swung on a fastball at the top of the zone and connected, sending it 410 feet into the left-center stands and doubling the Mets’ lead, 6-0.

Pete Alonso drove in a run in the seventh before Winker was walked to load the bases. After Vientos struck out, Nimmo took a 2-3 fastball and drove it to the home bullpen in left field, hitting a grand slam for the second time in his career to put the Mets up big, 11-0.

The Mets didn’t stop there. They loaded the bases on Salazar in the eighth and Nimmo’s double scored two. McNeil’s ground ball scored Vientos, and Nimmo scored on Acuña’s line drive to center field.

Griffin Canning shut out the Nats over five innings, but the Mets could have used a few more out of the right-hander. He pitched around traffic with walks, putting a decent dent in his pitch count, but was able to effectively limit hard contact. Canning allowed four hits, walked three and struck out five in the win (4-1).

Max Kranick pitched the sixth, and right-hander Jose Ureña went the rest of the way, giving up all five runs scored by Washington in the bottom of the eighth, but still earning a three-inning save.

Vientos capped the scoring in the ninth inning with a home run off former Mets shortstop and one-time top prospect, Amed Rosario. There was a certain humor in the situation that could only be appreciated by fans of the Mets.