BALTIMORE _ As Brandon Nimmo stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth Wednesday, his game already perhaps the best of his career, Camden Yards was mostly empty. The Orioles' second-stringers were in. The Mets' 16-5 win was all but over.
And when his grounder up the middle signaled that he would fall short of a cycle _ he needed a home run _ Nimmo busted it down the line anyway, reaching on a single when shortstop Tim Beckham bobbled the ball.
Nimmo finished 5-for-5 with two doubles and a triple and got on base six times, including his hit-by-pitch _ the highlight among highlights in the Mets' highest-scoring win of the season. Since the fifth inning Tuesday, Nimmo has reached in nine consecutive plate appearances.
After scoring four runs in their first three games against Baltimore, which has the worst record in baseball, the Mets plated quadruple that total in one night. That included nine in a sixth inning punctuated by Kevin Plawecki's grand slam.
Todd Frazier (3-for-6, four RBIs) finished a triple short of the cycle, and Wilmer Flores also homered in his 2-for-5, three-RBI night. Jack Reinheimer picked up his first career hit, a single to center, in the eighth inning. Jose Reyes went 2-for-5 to lift his average to .199, its highest point at the end of a game this season.
The Mets rocked Dylan Bundy for seven runs in 51/3 innings. During the long sixth, former Met Sean Gilmartin became the Orioles' fourth pitcher of the inning. He tossed 11/3 scoreless innings.
That was all in support of Zack Wheeler, who turned in a rare shaky start. He fought through command issues _ and a high pitch count _ to get through five innings, his shortest outing in more than a month. He allowed one run, five hits and two walks and struck out three. Over his past five starts, Wheeler has a 1.41 ERA.
Manager Mickey Callaway said Wheeler isn't facing a hard innings limit, but the Mets will actively look for signs of potential fatigue the rest of the season. Wheeler is up to 1391/3 innings, approaching double what he totaled in 2015-17 (861/3).
"We need to absolutely pay attention to how he feels and how we use him," Callaway said. "So we're going to take some spots and make sure that we give him an extra day or two moving forward. We're definitely paying attention to it and monitoring all the numbers that we can possibly monitor and have as many conversations as we can."
