The Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-3 on a dramatic, walk-off, two-run home run by Brandon Nimmo in the bottom of the ninth at Citi Field on Sunday night. As a result, they avoided a three-game sweep and crept back to within one game of .500 for the season.
Five takeaways
1. It looked like another night of offensive frustration when lightning struck for the Mets in the ninth inning. The winning rally started with Jeff McNeil beating out a bunt for a leadoff single. After Tomas Nido put down a sacrifice bunt, Nimmo came to the plate for the first time in the game, having entered as a pinch-runner an inning earlier, and drilled a home run off lefty AJ Minter over the fence in right center.
2. Luis Severino gave the Mets a solid but relatively short start, giving up two runs in five-plus innings, raising his ERA slightly to 3.00 for the season. For a second straight outing, walks were an issue for Severino. After walking six at the Tampa Bay Rays, he walked four in this game. It hurt him most in the sixth when he walked Zach Short leading off the inning, then gave up a single to Matt Olson before he was pulled from the game with 94 pitches. Short came around to score on Marcell Ozuna’s ground-ball single up the middle. Severino appeared to have good stuff, with a fastball that topped out at 97.6 mph, according to Statcast, and he got 12 swing-and-miss results, but had some trouble putting hitters away, winding up with 4 strikeouts on the night.
3. Reed Garrett continues to be the surprise story of the season for the Mets, delivering another dominant appearance out of the bullpen. Relieving Severino with runners on first and second and no outs in the sixth inning, Garrett gave up a ground-ball RBI single to Ozuna, but then struck out the next three hitters, two with his signature splitter, to escape further damage. He came back out to pitch a scoreless seventh inning as well, lowering his ERA to 0.43 for the season. In 21 innings over 14 appearances, Garrett now has 35 strikeouts.
4. It was looking like a night when the Mets’ effort to improve their MLB-worst caught-stealing percentage was paying dividends, as they twice picked off Ronald Acuna Jr. from first base, but the stolen base wound up costing them in a big way. It happened after Adam Ottavino walked Short to lead off the eighth inning. Ottavino is notoriously slow to the plate with his delivery, and after he threw over to first twice, Short stole second easily, and that proved to be crucial when Ozuna singled up the middle to drive in Short with the go-ahead run.
5. One-time Mets’ top prospect Jarred Kelenic got the Braves on the board first with solo home run in the second inning off Severino. It was only Kelenic’s second home run of the season, as he has yet to live up to the hype he once had as a prospect. The Seattle Mariners, who acquired Kelenic in the Edwin Diaz trade, gave up on him last offseason and traded him to the Braves. His numbers have been a bit bitter this season but still below league-average, at least judging by his OPS-plus number. He started the night with a .680 OPS.
Who’s the MVP?
Nimmo was held out of the lineup as a caution against his intercostal strain and wound up being the hero on the night for the Mets, entering the game as a pinch-runner for DJ Stewart in the seventh inning and then coming up in the ninth. Facing Minter, Nimmo worked the count to 3-2 and then pulled a 90 mph cutter over the fence in right center.
Highlights
What’s next
The Mets face the Philadelphia Phillies Monday at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.
Sean Manaea (2-1, 3.31 ERA) and Cristopher Sanchez (2-3, 3.22 ERA) are in line to start.
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