3 Up, 3 Down: Nimmo Helps, Hurts Mets to Subway Series Split

The New York Mets once again played a sloppy, ugly series that was full of mistakes, underachieving, and poor pitching. However, they managed to eke out one game to split the Subway Series. An abbreviated series deserves an abbreviated “3 Up, 3 Down” column, so here are your heroes and zeros from the Mets-Yankees two-game tilt.

3 Up

Nimmo Walks It Off

Brandon Nimmo had his share of mistakes in this two-game set (more on that later), but ultimately, he walked off the hero on Wednesday night. Overall, Nimmo went 4-for-8 in the series with three RBIs, so it was not just the final hit that catapulted him into the 3 Up section. It was a rare positive for Nimmo at Citi Field, which has not been kind to him this season: he is slashing .231/.333/.365 at home compared to .329/.413/.480 on the road. The Mets desperately needed their leadoff hitter to be a catalyst, and he was that.

Verlander Bounces Back

Justin Verlander‘s season has seemingly been one up, one down. After a miserable start against the Braves, he rebounded to pitch six innings of one-run ball against the Yankees, allowing just three hits with no walks. Although the Yankees’ lineup is not exactly imposing without Aaron Judge, a good start is a good start. It took Verlander 107 pitches to make it through six, but the Mets will take that compared to his previous outing.

Leone Comes Up Clutch

The Mets’ bullpen was in dire straits as they headed into extra innings in Game 2. After Drew Smith was ejected without throwing a pitch, Buck Showalter was forced to go to Dominic Leone even though he had thrown 19 pitches the day prior in 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Leone got all three batters that he legitimately faced, working around the ghost runner and an intentional walk to Giancarlo Stanton. He needed just 11 pitches to get a strikeout, flyout, and groundout. It was a gutsy performance from Leone, bailing out a battered Mets relief corps.

3 Down

Small Game Pitcher

Since his seven-inning shutout performance against the Yankees on July 27, 2022, and a similar performance against the Braves a couple of starts later, Max Scherzer has come up remarkably small in big moments for the Mets. While this Subway Series was not on par with some of the other games he pitched, the Mets needed Scherzer to stanch the bleeding after losing eight of nine games. Instead, Scherzer hemorrhaged, allowing six earned runs on seven hits in just 3.1 innings. His two homers allowed now bring him to 10 in 56 2/3 innings pitched, a putrid 1.6 HR/9 mark. The fact that this happened at Citi Field, a pitcher’s park, is just the icing on the cake.

Scherzer’s last two starts now cast him squarely back into the question mark column for the Mets just after he had appeared to figure things out. What was worse was that he pitched in both games with a lead—in this case, 5-1 after three innings of play.

Blunderful Baseball

Although he was the hero in Game 2, Nimmo was the goat in Game 1. With one out and a runner on second in the sixth inning, Anthony Volpe hit a fly ball to center. Nimmo got a good break on the ball and was poised to make the catch, but instead, the ball glanced off his glove. Inexplicably, he was not charged with an error on the play, but Josh Donaldson‘s sacrifice fly one batter later was the difference in the game.

Game 2 consisted of a cacophony of errors, mistakes, and just flat-out bad baseball from the Mets. Jeff McNeil and Francisco Álvarez both had throwing errors. McNeil was called for a shift violation (which he disputed and was probably right about, but nevertheless). Nimmo was thrown out at second when Joey Cora held up Mark Vientos at third, compounding the issue with a flubbed dive back into second (though he likely would have been out anyway). Most egregiously, the Mets allowed a straight steal of home.

The second game went the Mets’ way, but this series was emblematic of all that has gone wrong for them in 2023.

Mets’ Biggest Hitters Not Clutch

In Game 1, trailing 7-6, the Mets loaded the bases with one out in the eighth. Mark Canha walked, followed by a single from Nimmo, a forceout from Álvarez, and a McNeil hit by pitch. That brought up Francisco Lindor, from whom the Mets desperately needed something with Pete Alonso out of the lineup. Instead, Lindor struck out after battling through seven pitches. Starling Marte followed that up with a nine-pitch punchout, and there went the Mets’ best chance to take the game that they had previously blown.