WALK-OFF WIN
Smiles all around for deGrom and Mets after Nimmo’s walk-off home run
In the end, the happiest man in baseball put a smile on all of Citi Field, which was fitting, of course, for Brandon Nimmo.
As Mickey Callaway put it, when asked whether he saw just how energized Nimmo was after hitting his pinch-hit walk-off home run in the 10th inning of Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over the Phillies: “That’s him after a walk.”
Callaway meant it as a compliment, noting how much he appreciates the energy Nimmo brings on a nightly basis, and it’s not just the manager who sees it that way.
The kid from Wyoming has won over hard-bitten New Yorkers with his ever-present smile, never more so than Wednesday night as he spared the Mets the embarrassment of wasting still another brilliant start by Jacob deGrom.
As it is, Nimmo’s home run came too late to reward deGrom with a win for his eight shutout innings, which lowered his major league-leading ERA to 1.68.
As a result deGrom’s record remained at 5-4, and more and more you have to wonder if he will set a new standard for fewest wins by a Cy Young Award winner.
Felix Hernandez’s 13 in 2010 represents the lowest total to date, and voters have come to realize over the last decade or so that wins shouldn’t be the determining factor, dependent as they are on run support and bullpen performance.
Still, in what looks like it should be a tight race with Max Scherzer, who has 11 wins and pitches against the Mets here on Thursday night, wins could still be at least something of a tie-breaker.
For the moment, deGrom is the ultimate proof of how deceptive a pitcher’s record can be, as he has now had 10 starts in which he pitched seven innings while allowing one run or fewer. And seven of those times he hasn’t earned a win.
Yet the righthander has been remarkably composed through all the hard-luck starts, always saying the right things afterward, as he did again on Wednesday.
“As long as we get the win, that’s all I care about,” he said.
When asked if he ever lets the lack of run support creep into his head while on the mound, deGrom shook his head.
“When I’m out there I try to think it’s 0-0 the whole time,” he said, before pausing and noting, “which it was tonight,” earning a big laugh from reporters at his locker.
“That’s my thought process,” he continued. “It’s the mindset I’ve had since I started pitching.”
If you gave him truth serum you’d have to think deGrom would admit he wouldn’t mind being traded, as the Mets are in the middle of a second straight lost season, with an immediate future so murky as to spark this endless debate about whether to rebuild or not.
Personally, as I’ve said before, I wouldn’t trade deGrom, even though he just turned 30, because I think with his athleticism and loose-limbed delivery he can pitch at a high level into his mid 30s.
I do think the Mets need to look into trading Noah Syndergaard as a way of bringing in some young, positionplayer talent they desperately need, and if the made the right trade they could be serious contenders again by at least 2020.
The likes of Nimmo and Amed Rosario, who is starting to show signs of reaching his high-ceiling potential, could form a nucleus with Michael Conforto and some young pitching on the way to make it a relatively speedy turnaround.
In the meantime, deGrom’s biggest night of the year will come next week when he pitches in the All-Star Game. After Wednesday’s game, Mickey Call-
away made the case that deGrom should get the start, saying it would be “the wrong decision” if he didn’t.
In truth, though, it’s hard to argue that Scherzer shouldn’t get the start in his home ballpark in Washington, D.C., much as Matt Harvey did at Citi Field in 2013.
DeGrom, for his part, admitted “I’d like to start,” but noted “that’s not up to me,” and he surely knows the honor is likely to go to Scherzer, who has won the last two NL Cy Young Awards with the Nationals.
On this night, deGrom was really just happy his team found a way to win.
Nimmo, who was given the night off after slumping lately, came up to pinch-hit after Rosario doubled with two outs in the 10th, and Jose Reyes walked. He jumped on a first-pitch curveball from Mark Leiter, sending it deep over the wall in right and did his typical sprint around the bases, all smiles as always.
“You’re just floating,” Nimmo said afterward when asked what it felt like running around the bases. “It’s hard to describe. The hair on the back of my neck was standing up. It’s definitely a night I’ll never forget.”
It won’t change the course of this dead-end season for a team that just can’t score runs, but if anyone deserves a feel-good moment on this team, it’s Nimmo.
Well, anyone other than deGrom, anyway.