WASHINGTON — Brandon Nimmo began Monday below the Mendoza line and proceeded to have the kind of game a manager named Mendoza could love.
The Mets outfielder already had three RBIs when he came to the plate in the seventh inning, but he was about to triple that total over his next two plate appearances.
Nimmo’s grand slam in the seventh highlighted his two-homer, nine RBI performance in the Mets’ 19-5 victory over the Nationals.
Nimmo’s RBI total tied the franchise mark for a single game established by Carlos Delgado in 2008.
“You never know when days like today might happen,” Nimmo said. “To tie a franchise record in RBIs, that obviously doesn’t happen every day, but just getting balls in the air, hitting balls hard. It doesn’t always happen like that, so really just enjoy today.”
It was just the kind of day the Mets (20-9) needed after two walk-off losses in the series, including on Sunday when the bullpen blew a six-run lead.
Carlos Mendoza’s crew finished with a split in the series and will return to Citi Field for three games against the Diamondbacks beginning Tuesday.
After hitting a grand slam in the seventh, Nimmo smashed a two-run double with the bases loaded in the eighth, allowing him to tie Delgado’s single-game Mets record.
“I didn’t know it had tied the franchise record, but I knew how many RBIs I had,” Nimmo said.
Nimmo, who entered batting .192, finished 4-for-6 to raise that mark to .218. The nine RBIs increased his total to 21 for the season, second on the team to Pete Alonso’s 27.
“[Nimmo] is a really good player, he’s a good hitter,” Mendoza said. “At some point those guys are going to come out of it. It’s part of a big league season where sometimes it’s going to be hard and then you see games like this.”
Griffin Canning dodged trouble over five shutout innings in which he allowed four hits and three walks and struck out five. The right-hander saw his ERA drop to 2.61 before departing at 90 pitches.
Francisco Alvarez’s RBI double and Jeff McNeil’s ensuing sacrifice fly gave the Mets a 2-0 lead against Trevor Williams in the second inning. Mark Vientos and Nimmo each singled in the inning before Alvarez hit a sinking line drive to left field that a diving Alex Call couldn’t grab.
It was the third RBI in the series for Alvarez, whose two-run homer on Saturday accounted for the Mets’ only scoring in a victory.
Canning created early traffic but managed to escape trouble. In the second, he allowed singles to Dylan Crews and Call before striking out Jacob Young to end the inning.
In the third, CJ Abrams singled leading off and James Wood walked before Canning struck out Luis García Jr. and got Nathaniel Lowe to hit into a double play. In the fourth Canning again avoided damage after allowing two base runners.
McNeil homered on Williams’ first pitch of the fifth inning to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0.
It was the first homer of the season for McNeil, who along with Alvarez returned to the team on Friday after opening the season on the injured list.
Jesse Winker and Vientos walked in succession against Williams to begin the sixth inning. Nimmo followed with his first homer of the game, a blast against lefty Colin Poche that buried the Nationals in a 6-0 hole.
In the seventh, Alonso’s RBI single extended the lead. Winker then walked to load the bases before Nimmo hit a shot into the right field seats for his second career grand slam.
José Ureña, in his Mets debut, surrendered five earned runs in the eighth after working a scoreless seventh. Ureña returned to pitch a scoreless ninth.
The Nationals used infielder Amed Rosario to pitch the ninth. Vientos blasted a three-run homer in the inning to conclude the onslaught. Winker also had an RBI single in the inning. Nimmo was retired following Vientos’ blast.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, man, it would be cool to get double-digit RBIs in a day’ when I was coming up possibly before [Vientos] hit the three-run homer,” Nimmo said. “I was not able to get over the top of that, but it’s still awesome to me all the same — to be able to be in Mets history like that.”
