Mets 4 Braves 3 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 19-20
Mets streak: Won 1
WP - Edwin Diaz (1-1)
LP - A.J. Minter (5-3)
Seat on the Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Brandon Nimmo didn't start the game after he suffered intercostal irritation on Saturday. But he came in as a pinch runner for D.J. Stewart and had one at-bat. It was all he needed to win the game as his two run homer off A.J. Minter won the game for the Mets and saved them from a sweep at the hands of the Braves.
Need to Know
Nimmo's home run off Minter was his second of the season off Minter. The first one came on April 8th and it tied the game in the 7th in what turned out to be an 8-7 Mets win in Atlanta.
Pete Alonso drove in the first two runs for the Mets with a single in the 3rd and double in the 6th.
Jarred Kelenic hit his third home run o the season in the second inning to give the Braves 1-0 lead.
With Nimmo out of the starting lineup, the Mets turned to D.J. Stewart to be their leadoff hitter. For Stewart, it was his second ever start as the leadoff hitter. HIs first came on June 13th, 2021 for the Orioles when he went 1-for-4 with 2 strikeouts. Tonight, Stewart went two for three wtih a walk and a run before being lifted for Nimmo as a pinch runner.
Austin Riley left the game in the 4th inning with left side tightness after striking out in the 3rd. Replacing him at third base? Former Met Zack Short, who walked twice and scored twice.
Ronald Acuna Jr. was picked off first base twice ... the first time he has been thrown out trying to steal twice in his major league career.
Marcell Ozuna's two RBI tonight put him at 40, the fastest Brave to 40 since Hank Aaron.
Turning Point
Shall we go with the obvious?
Yeah, let's go with the obvious. In a game that went back and forth, the final turning point is the best turning point.
Three Keys
Pete Bears Witness
It'll be buried because of Nimmo's heroics, but Alonso's two ribbies have him on a mini-hot streak. Pete is now 6 for his last 17 with 6 RBI in four games.
The Inside Job Was Thwarted
The former Mets really did try to sabotage the Mets' night, and they came gosh darn close. Jarred Kelenic's homer was expected ever since he was traded away.
But if the Mets had lost, it would have been about their inability to throw strikes to an .063 hitter. That .063 hitter was former Met Zack Short, who came into the game for Austin Riley. Short walked twice and was twice driven in by Marcell Ozuna.
To hold the Braves' lineup relatively in check only to walk Zack Short twice and let him score both times would have been a bitter pill to swallow.
The Lost Art
There are many things that could have been the third key. The Mets picking off Acuna twice. Stewart reaching base three times as the leadoff hitter in place of Nimmo. Nimmo's great catch in the 8th. Edwin Diaz's 1-2-3 ninth.
But Jeff McNeil's perfect drag bunt to lead off the 9th was a huge play to set up Nimmo's heroics.
McNeil was hitting .211 lifetime off A.J. Minter (4-for-19), so what better time to go 1980's on everyone and drag a bunt against a pitcher falling to the other side? It evoked memories of Wally Backman dragging a bunt to set up Lenny Dykstra's home run against the Astros in the '86 NLCS. While the stakes weren't quite as high on Sunday night, it was a regular season win that the Mets had to have with the Phillies coming in and the Mets staring a sweep to the Braves right in the grill.
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