Nimmo Homers, Spoils Shildt’s Strategy in Mets Win Over Padres
The pivotal moment came in the third inning.
Pete Alonso walked to put runners on the corners with one out, prompting San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt to give starter Randy Vasquez an early hook. He brought in lefty Wandy Peralta to face the left-handed hitting Brandon Nimmo with the Mets leading 2-1.
Nimmo ruined the plan, sending a 1-2 change-up 389 feet for his career-high-tying 24th home run and a 5-1 Mets lead. New York (79-74) beat the Padres 6-1 on Thursday at Citi Field to win the rubber game of the series and give its playoff hopes a boost. The regular season ends a week from Sunday.
The idle Diamondbacks (77-76) fell to two games back of the Mets for the final Wild Card spot. The Reds (76-76) host the Cubs and the Giants (76-76) visit the Dodgers later Thursday. Cincinnati and San Francisco both trail the Mets by 2.5 games right now.
Jonah Tong, coming off his worst start of the year (major and minor leagues included), struck out eight over five innings and gave up one unearned run on four hits. He threw 59 of 82 pitches for strikes and retired the last eight batters he faced. Tong gave up six runs in his last start and was knocked out in the first inning.
The bullpen did the rest. Tyler Rogers, Brooks Raley, Gregory Soto and Edwin Díaz each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
Alonso hit his 37th homer, a solo shot that traveled 445 feet to center, in the first inning. He’s homered in four straight games, starting with a walk-off blast on Sunday to beat the Rangers. He homered in four straight twice before, in 2019 and 2023. He added a sacrifice fly in the seventh for his 121st RBI.
The Padres (83-70) tied the game at 1-1 in the third. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled, took second when Tong bounced a pick-off throw past Alonso, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Luis Arraez sacrifice fly.
Cedric Mullins led off the Mets’ third with a single and went to third on a Francisco Lindor single to right. Tatis tried to throw Mullins out on Lindor’s hit, but missed the cut-off man and Lindor alertly took second. Juan Soto followed with an RBI groundout that also advanced Lindor to third. Then came the Alonso walk and Nimmo’s blast.
Stats of the Game
Alonso reached 120 RBIs for the third time in his career, tying him with Nolan Arenado for the most among active players. Soto reached 100 RBIs for the third straight year and fourth time in his eight-year career. Tong reached 200 strikeouts between the majors (21) and minors (179) in 130 1/3 innings pitched combined. He became the youngest Met (22 years, 91 days) to record eight strikeouts without a walk or earned run in a start since Dwight Gooden.
Player of the Game
Nimmo entered the game hitting .246/.306/.377 against lefties and .267/.333/.463 against right-handers. He had the big blow and an outfield assist in the first inning when Manny Machado didn’t hustle out of the box on a ball that one-hopped the left-field wall. Nimmo threw to Lindor, whose relay to Jeff McNeil was in time to get a sliding Machado at second.
On Deck
There are nine games to go in the regular season, starting with a home weekend series with the last-place Nationals. Brandon Sproat (0-1, 2.25 ERA) will look to earn his first career win against fellow rookie Andrew Alvarez (1-0, 1.15 ERA). The Nats’ 26-year-old lefty has given up two runs in 15 2/3 innings pitched over three starts. Game time is 7:10 p.m. ET on SNY.
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