Mets' Brandon Nimmo after tying franchise-record with nine RBI: 'These days don’t come very often'

Entering play on Monday, Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo was hitting .192 with a .576 OPS -- just a brutal first month of the season that comes on the heels of a tough second half last year.

While dealing with plantar fasciitis for much of 2024 didn't help, make no bones about it, Nimmo had been struggling at the plate for the better part of half of a season.

It's something he was aware of and trying to fix.

Then, Monday's game against the Washington Nationals happened.

With New York up 3-0 in the sixth inning, Nimmo came up to the plate with two runners on and hit a three-run homer to extend the Mets' lead. Had Nimmo's day ended there it would've been a pretty good day and a trend in the right direction. But he wasn't done, not by a long shot.

An inning later, the outfielder had another chance to do some damage, this time with the bases loaded. On the first pitch, Nimmo skied another home run for a grand slam to give New York a commanding lead and him seven RBI on the day -- a new career-high.

Still not done.

He came up with the bases loaded again, a testament to the hitters in front of him to which Nimmo gave all the credit, in the eighth and for an encore hit a two-run double to tie the franchise record with nine RBI in a single game.

"These days don’t come very often – it’s taken me nine years," Nimmo joked after the game. "That’s really cool to tie a franchise record. You just enjoy days like this and this is one of the reasons you play baseball."

After the game, Nimmo's average jumped to .218 and his OPS soared over 100 points to .679. While those numbers are still a far cry from the Nimmo that Mets fans have grown accustomed to seeing since he made his MLB debut in 2016, it's certainly a trend back in the right direction.

Rough start aside, even before Monday's historic game Nimmo felt that he was on his way to breaking out while hitting balls hard but running into some tough luck.

"Even yesterday, I came away with no hits but I hit a lot of balls hard and so I feel like I’ve been trending in this direction," he said. "Where there’s smoke there’s fire and you kind of start to head in that direction. It doesn’t really happen in one fell swoop usually.

"So I was definitely trending in this direction and it’s great to have a day like today to hopefully get [me] going. You never know, tomorrow’s a new day and you don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, but I do feel like I’ve been putting better at-bats together and we’ve been trending in this direction."

A productive Nimmo, lowered from cleanup to sixth on Monday, in the middle of New York's lineup does so much to help lengthen the batting order. So, following the 32-year-old's impressive performance, it'll be interesting to see where manager Carlos Mendoza puts him in the lineup going forward.

In 73 at-bats batting fourth this season, Nimmo is slashing .205/.253/.370. He didn't fare well in that spot last season either, albeit in a much smaller sample size.

"Part of you just wants to scream and throw a tantrum and just be like ‘what in the world is going on’, but there’s another part of you that understands that’s just the way baseball works and sometimes you hit balls right at people and sometimes you hit a little squibber and you get a base hit," Nimmo said.

"[It’s] great to have a day like today," he continued. "It’s been a little bit frustrating and you never know when days like today might happen. Tying a franchise-record in RBI, that doesn’t happen every day."

While Monday's game was one for the record-books -- not just for Nimmo but the entire team as they put up 19 runs on 21 hits in a blowout win -- Nimmo is hoping it's not a flash in the pan.

His next opportunity to build off this will be on Tuesday when the Mets host the Arizona Diamondbacks to begin a three-game series.

"You just gotta focus on the process and trying to make sure you’re working on the right things and you’re headed in the right direction," he said. "If you’re not, then how do I get working in the right direction."

Regardless, Nimmo's name is now entrenched in Mets history, something he doesn't take for granted.

"It can be so frustrating at times, but so rewarding at others and you just keep fighting and try to stay calm, cool and collected through it and eventually break through and have days like this," he said. "So, really special day, really special moment."