A breakthrough? Brandon Nimmo ignites for four hits, two HRs to lead Mets past Braves

ATLANTA — One night after Francisco Lindor broke out of his season-opening slump, it was Brandon Nimmo's turn to do the same.

The Mets outfielder nearly single-handedly kept the Mets in the game, twice tying the game with the long ball.

With the Mets trailing 4-1 in the top of the fifth inning, Nimmo blasted a hanging changeup from Charlie Morton for a 435-foot three-run home run onto the top deck of the Chop House into right field to even the score. Then, after the Braves moved back ahead by one, Nimmo tagged a solo home run to straightaway center field of AJ Minter to make it 5-5.

DJ Stewart broke out of his own 0-for-12 slump with a go-ahead two-run home run to center field off Pierce Johnson and Nimmo added another RBI single to help the Mets upend the Braves, 8-7, in their series opener in front of 37,538 fans on Monday night at Truist Park.

"Obviously it feels really good for some to fall where people can't catch them," Nimmo said. "I feel like I've been swinging the bat well and hitting some balls hard but haven't quite fell. I've just been trying to build on at-bats."

The victory helped the Mets improve to 4-6 on the season. Since starting the campaign with five straight losses, they have now won four out of their last five games, including a series win over the Reds.

"I've been in a lot of games, especially with big rivalries, and now with the Mets and Braves, it's a great atmosphere," Carlos Mendoza said. "Obviously the fans are into it every pitch. That's a very good ball club there, but like I said before the series, we'll be ready for it and the boys showed up today."

A turn in the right direction for Brandon Nimmo, DJ Stewart

Nimmo finished 4-for-4 with two home runs, five RBI and a walk.

They were Nimmo's first two home runs of the season, providing an encouraging sign for the Mets leadoff hitter, who entered the series with the Braves 3-for-29 with two of those hits, including his first double of the season, coming on Saturday against the Reds.

It was Nimmo's first multi-home run game of the season and sixth of his career.

During the series with the Reds over the weekend, Nimmo sent a message to Jeff McNeil on a pair of batting gloves. ""Swing at good pitches and hit it where they're not," he wrote on the sleeve. On Monday night, Nimmo lived up to his own message to keep the Mets in the game.

"My guys have just been supporting me as far as as positive words of affirmation and trying to keep me up. The hitting coaches, just saying, 'Hey, everything looks good, just keep going with it, stick with it, it'll turn around at some point,' and nice for that to happen tonight."

Stewart, meanwhile, finally flashed the power that the Mets knew he had after homering 10 times in 16 games down the stretch last season. In a big moment, his first hit of the season provided a major lift.

The Mets designated hitter can sense the momentum gathering for the lineup as a whole

"Our pitching staff has kind of been holding it down for us all year, not giving up many runs and our offense has been very slow," Stewart said. "You see those guys, those are our leaders and when you see them start going, obviously we all want to go, but you see them and it's kind of like, 'OK, it's your turn.'"

What a relief

Drew Smith had his PitchCom dialed up all the way to 20 — the maximum setting — but was still having difficulty hearing the signals from Francisco Alvarez behind the plate.

Smith was tasked with the biggest moment of the game with the Mets leading 8-5 in the eighth inning. Jake Diekman walked the opening batter before Smith was called upon. Smith gave up a single to Orlando Arcia before colliding into the camera well on a foul ball in the next at-bat.

The right-hander used the adrenaline to mask the pain and strike out the next two batters. He issued back-to-back walks to allow a run to score but was able to get Austin Riley to ground out to the left side to end the inning.

"I didn't really care about how many pitches I was going to throw," Smith said. "I know I was in deep counts a lot but at that point, you just have to work on getting through the inning."

Mendoza said his trio of high-leverage arms — Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley — who had each pitched on three out of the last four days were off-limits on Monday.

That complicated things after Mets starter Julio Teheran only lasted 2⅔ innings in his debut. After two scoreless innings, Teheran gave up four earned runs on four hits and two walks in the third inning as he could not get through after throwing 41 pitches in the frame.

The Mets' middle-relief crew were able to cobble together the final 6⅓ innings and only allowed threeearned runs against the potent Braves offense.

Reed Garrett was a standout, striking out five and only allowing one hit and one walk in 2⅓ as the Mets were able to claw back in. Pablo Lopez was charged with the save opportunity. He gave up an leadoff double and RBI single but was aided by a leaping catch by Tyrone Taylor to rob an extra-base hit and long run and catch in the right-center field gap by Starling Marte to end the game.

"Very tough, very tough, especially when it was a tie game in the seventh and you only have Lopez and Drew Smith," Mendoza said of managing his arms on Monday. "You're thinking about how you're going to get through it. I'm glad the boys came through today offensively and we were able to shut it down and get the W there."