The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Mets 6-5 on a walk-off double from All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the 10th inning on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for the Mets, left fielder Brandon Nimmo had a chance to make a play on the ball, which sliced to the opposite field off of Freeman's bat, but seemed to misjudge the sidespin as the ball dropped in for a hit.
Did Nimmo believe the ball, which Statcast says would have been a home run in 10 out of 30 ballparks, was a home run, as Freeman said in the postgame? Or was it a simple mistake?
"Unfortunately, sometimes that happens. Sometimes, the ball doesn't go the way you think."
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 4, 2025
Brandon Nimmo talks about what happened on Freddie Freeman's fly ball in the 10th inning: pic.twitter.com/GIlurj6su9
"We were played in to try and be able to throw him out if he got a base hit," Nimmo explained to reporters after the game. "As soon as he hit it, I knew it was hit well. I put my head down to get back towards the fence—went over to the left shoulder, looked up, it was still over the left shoulder. I guess not my right when I was looking over.
"And then I checked the wall real quick and put my eyes back up and it had moved to the other shoulder. By that time, there was not enough time to recover. It acted a little bit differently than what I'm used to but sometimes that happens in a game. It was unfortunate. Would have loved to have made that play—have two outs and us [to] get a chance to get out of there and try again.
"But unfortunately, sometimes that happens. Sometimes, the ball doesn't go the way you think."
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza also was asked about the play, which he believed was not as simple as it seemed.
"That ball slicing from a lefty, not an easy play," Mendoza said. "Because of where he’s at positioning-wise, it’s not as routine as it looked."
New York will again take on the Dodgers in the second game of the series on Wednesday at 10:10 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mets OF Had Simple Excuse for Completely Botching Freddie Freeman’s Game-Winning Hit.
