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Brandon Nimmo Provides Bad News for Anyone Hoping Mets Might Start Decelerating

These October Mets are a shock.

Josh Wilson

Mets outfielders Bader, Nimmo, Taylor left to right
Mets outfielders Bader, Nimmo, Taylor left to right / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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Don't look now, but the New York Mets are just two wins away from the NLCS. Yes, the same Mets that started the year 0-5. The same Mets that were, at one point, 17.5 games back. On Saturday, New York took the first game of the NLDS from the Philadelphia Phillies, going from a low of 21.8 percent win probability (per ESPN) to a 6-2 victory thanks in large part to a five-run eighth inning.

The Mets had to do plenty to make it into the postseason. They had to win one of their final two games (in doubleheader format) on the final day of the season to make it in, but that was after crawling out of that massive deficit. Along the way, they were the good vibes ship captains with McDonald's mascot Grimace becoming a key icon and a latin pop hit from one of its players, Jose Iglesias, becoming their anthem.

But, with how hard they had to claw to get here, shouldn't they slow soon? The magic is entertaining, but it has to wear off sometime, right?

Brandon Nimmo doesn't think so. The Mets outfielder was asked on MLB Network if the team is tiring:

"I don't think you can be tired in the playoffs and with this atmosphere. We've been on the road for two weeks now, we've had some amazing games. I think I've played two or three of the best games of my career and they've been within a week span."

Nimmo continued, insisting this is what it's all about:

"This is what we play for. This is what we do that 162-[game] grind for. When you're standing on the line before a game and there's 50,000 people waving their towels and you've got the Red October, it's just like you dream when you're a kid. And you've got all that emotion and adrenaline going, I just don't think you can be tired."

It's perhaps fear-inducing, considering the Phillies have created one of the best home field advantages in baseball the last several years, to hear that the raucous, loud Philly crowd is essentially what's giving the visiting Mets extra life.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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