ANAHEIM, Calif. — The easiest thing for Brandon Nimmo would have been to take two weeks off, allowing his wrist to heal and ensuring his numbers wouldn’t suffer.
But that is not part of the Mets outfielder’s DNA.
Nimmo has struggled at the plate after a late-May sprained right wrist forced him to miss games and receive a cortisone injection. But the first sign of a resurgence may have occurred Friday night, when he reached base three times, which included a homer and double for three RBIs.
Nimmo had entered the night 3-for-29 (.103) in June without an extra-base hit.
“[The wrist] definitely played into it,” Nimmo said. “When you’re not healthy and you’re not able to do everything at 100 percent or even 95 then, this is a hard game. Those guys on the mound, they are paid to get you out even when you are feeling good and they do a good job of it.”
Nimmo added that he felt a responsibility to the team to continue playing through the discomfort.
“It’s difficult, but I felt like I had a bigger job as well, being the center fielder, and that’s a big job,” Nimmo said. “I need to be there. I need to help carry that load. From my standpoint I was even thinking, if I could just be available to not have someone just step in and take that over, because when we look at the yardage we cover every night, center field covers a lot of ground and that is the last thing we need, guys getting injured. I felt that at least I could fill that position while I was trying to get the hand back.”
Nimmo entered the game Saturday night at Angel Stadium with a .268/.373/.421 slash line with four homers and 21 RBIs. The homer he blasted Friday was his first since April 25.
His contributions come at a time when Pete Alonso is playing through hand discomfort — the result of getting drilled by a Yu Darvish pitch last week — and Starling Marte was awaiting his return to the lineup after leaving a game with left quadriceps soreness.
“It’s just the fact nobody tries to do too much,” Nimmo said. “It’s not on one guy. We know that if somebody doesn’t get it done, with one out and there’s a guy on third base, the guy behind you has a great chance of picking you up. When you have that confidence in your teammates, it really helps a lot, to take some pressure off of you.”
Not lost on Nimmo is the fact the Mets have survived the absences of Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in the rotation, and still held a 6 ½-game lead in the NL East as play began Saturday.
The schedule won’t get easier for once the Mets complete this 10-game trip to Southern California on Sunday. Awaiting on the next homestand are the NL Central-leading Brewers, before a Marlins team that has started to show life comes to Citi Field. The Mets’ ensuing road trip will start with two games against the AL West-leading Astros before a jaunt to Miami.
Nimmo is salivating at the prospect of the two aces returning in the coming weeks. Scherzer is rehabbing from a strained left oblique and deGrom is recovering from a stress reaction on his right scapula. Both pitchers have been throwing from a mound.
“It’s like making trade moves and getting those pieces in place without actually having to give anything up,” Nimmo said. “For us it’s going to be like making those blockbuster moves that were made last year with teams like the Dodgers getting Scherzer and [Trea] Turner. It’s going to be like that for us except, just a little before then. We’re really excited about it but in the meantime just keep trying to grind and trying to put some wins together.”