Seattle For Brandon Nimmo, a single sixth-inning at-bat on Saturday night summed up everything that had gone wrong—both personally over the past few weeks and as a team for the Mets these past two nights.
With two outs, Francisco Lindor hit, and that was as big of a rally as New York would muster all night in their eventual second-straight shutout loss to the Mariners. Logan Gilbert was behind Nimmo in the count 2-1, and Gilbert made the most blunder of the night, a 97 mph fastball straight down the middle.
And Nimmo popped it up to center field.
“If I hit the home run on the mistake he made, it’s a two-run home run and we’re in a totally different ballgame,” Nimmo said after the 4-0 loss. “Instead I pop it up and he’s out of the inning.”
The Mets are still without their first run after two nights in Seattle. Gilbert and two relievers shut them out on Saturday after Bryce Miller and three relievers had done so on Friday. After the Mariners executed an absurd double play in the top of the first and quickly added three more in the bottom of the inning, the events on Saturday seemed inevitable.
Particularly Nimmo has been affected negatively by the team’s recent offensive setbacks. He has not hit the ball hard for a long time since the All-Star break, and this is his worst slump of the season. His batting average drops to.158 and his slugging percentage to.197 in the second half.
Asked how he’s feeling, the usually cheerful outfielder didn’t bother with optimism.
“Terrible,” he said. “I expect more of myself, and I’m working at it every day. It’s just not good enough. I’m one of the leaders on this team and I’m supposed to come through and do better. And I’m not. I’m going to do everything in my power to do better and finish strong.”
Nimmo’s strategy consists of charging at pitches similar to Gilbert’s in the sixth inning on Saturday.
“It’s capitalizing on pitches that you get. That’s the name of the game,” he said. “It’s the difference between doing really well and not at this level. That’s pretty much it.”
For Nimmo, the All-Star break has become an issue. He has struggled right away following the break in each of the previous three seasons.
“Obviously I’m not doing that the right way,” he said. “I’ve got to find a different routine, a different something out of the break.”
As the second half has gone on, Nimmo has begun to feel a little bit better; he believes he is still walking and choosing the appropriate pitches. However, he is making a distinction between current slump and the one he had earlier in April, when he was hitting the ball with greater force.
“The exit velo has gone down, more groundballs, so it’s all a recipe for not doing very well,” he said. “We do know I need to get the ball in the air more, hit the ball harder. The answers are easy to find but harder to fix.
“It’s just trying to find the right cues and the right looks in order to be successful on those pitches.”
Although Nimmo has previously emerged from slumps with a single strong outing where everything fell into place, he does not anticipate that this time.
“I hope we do find that. But usually, it’s stacking good at-bats,” he said, calling his recent play a case of one step forward and two steps back. “This usually doesn’t happen in one day. It happens over the course of a few days to a week.”
The difficulties an offense may have when facing outstanding pitching has been highlighted by these first two games in Seattle. The Mets must take advantage of the infrequent errors they have not made against the Mariners if they hope to make it to October and do anything while they are there.
“Playoff baseball,” Nimmo said, “it comes down to one or two pitches throughout a game and which team capitalizes on those.”
(Photo of Brandon Nimmo, right and Jesse Winker: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
