Mets’ 10-Year Veteran Responds To Disgruntled Phillies Fans

The Philadelphia Phillies returned this season with one of baseball’s highest payrolls and their core of veteran stars from last season largely intact, but they could have hoped for a better first series.

After winning the opening game against the Texas Rangers, the Phillies dropped the next two matchups as their hitters struggled.

“They were doomed by an anemic offensive performance in an 8-3 loss to Texas as the Phillies dropped their first series of the year,” Lochlahn March wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Collectively, they drew eight walks against Rangers pitching, but a lack of power and timely hits restrained any big rallies.”

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It didn’t help matters that a pair of key starters for the Phillies struggled as well, with Aaron Nola giving up three earned runs in five innings and Jesus Luzardo giving up two home runs. And adding a bit of insult to injury, one of those was courtesy of a familiar foe.

In the third inning of the third game, Rangers outfielder Brandon Nimmo hit a sweeper from Luzardo for a two-run homer in what ended up being a lopsided, 8-3 victory for the Rangers.

It was Nimmo’s first homer of the season and his first in a Rangers uniform after a decade spent with the New York Mets. He was traded away from Queens in an offseason overhaul after the Mets missed the playoffs last season, but Phillies fans certainly seemed to remember him.

“Nimmo fittingly made his Rangers debut in a place he is very familiar with. In three games against the Phillies over the weekend, the left-handed hitting Nimmo went 4-for-12 with a two-run home run off Jesús Luzardo,” Destiny Lugardo wrote for Phillies Nation. “He has run, not walked, to first base in Philadelphia after ball four 42 times in his career. Each time he throws the bat and hustles down the line, he hears the boos.”

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Following his debut series with the Rangers, Nimmo now has 11 career home runs at Citizens Bank Park, the most he has at any visiting stadium. And he is now a lifetime .276 hitters with a .401 on-base percentage at the Phillies’ stadium, compared to his .262 overall career batting average and .364 on-base percentage.

Though Nimmo is notorious among Phillies’ home fans and they let him hear their frustration, he seems to enjoy playing in Philadelphia and doesn’t begrudge his former National League East rivals.

“I hear the boos when I go up there and it’s just part of baseball… it’s good to know that they still remember me,” Nimmo said after the game, per Lugardo. “Even though they don’t like me, I appreciate their passion for their team and the game… And it’s totally OK that they don’t like me. I appreciate that they love their team and they want their team to do well.”