First, Brandon Nimmo was battling a fan to catch a Fernando Tatis Jr. foul ball down the left field line.
And after Nimmo caught the first out of the top of the fourth inning, a 5-1 Mets victory, he shook hands with a fan wearing an orange “Los Angeles Mets” T-shirt. The two appeared to stumble.
Nimmo made sure the fan was OK, received a few pats on the back of his City Connect jersey and then held out his glove to the nearest umpire to show he had, in fact, caught the ball.
“That was just teamwork,” Mets play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen said on the PIX11 broadcast.
The catch saved Mets starting pitcher Jose Quintana from having to throw another pitch to Tatis, who hit a 100.3 mph double in the first inning of Saturday’s victory, according to Baseball Savant.
Quintana walked Jurickson Profar but then retired the next two Padres batters, finishing the fourth inning unscathed with just one hit and a walk to Profar.
Nimmo hit a double into the gap in right-center field in the bottom of the inning, sending home shortstop Francisco Lindor, who had doubled in his previous at-bat, for the Mets’ first run of the night on Saturday.
The performance has allowed Nimmo to get a hit in eight of his last 10 games, snapping him out of a long slump that saw his batting average drop to .209 at the end of May and led to him being tested for a concussion, a period that was compounded by the aftereffects of being hit in the head by a pitch.
“I’ve been tested and I understand that Mendy went through the same thing last year so I’ll be undergoing further tests,” Nimmo told The Post’s Peter Botte on Friday. “So there will be further tests, but I don’t have any symptoms. I’m not feeling groggy, I don’t have any sleep problems, I don’t have any sensitivity to light. As far as I know, I’m OK, but I’m definitely being monitored by the team.”
