New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo was playing with a heavy heart.
Amidst the champagne-soaked clubhouse celebrations following the Mets’ stunning 4-2 comeback win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, Nimmo told reporters that he learned his grandmother had passed away about an hour before the game began.
‘What it puts in perspective is that you can’t take any of this with you when you’re gone,’ Nimmo said. ‘And the moments like these, the experiences like these – this is what life is all about.’
Nimmo said he hadn’t yet told anybody else around the team and that his grandmother had gone to the hospital a day earlier.
Nimmo had a key single in the Mets’ ninth-inning rally, setting up Pete Alonso’s go-ahead three-run homer that gave New York its first postseason series win since 2015.
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‘Her and my grandpa watched every game,’ Nimmo said, noting that he was fortunate to have visited with his grandmother recently.
“To score four runs in the ninth inning and to come back, I know she would have loved that and she would have been cheering us on,’ Nimmo said, per the New York Post.
The 31-year-old Nimmo was the Mets’ first-round pick in 2011 and signed an eight-year, $162 million contract with the team after the 2022 season.
New York will face the Philadelphia Phillies in the best-of-five National League Division Series beginning Saturday.