Brandon Nimmo blames crowd for strange Mets baserunning blunder: Everybody was confused

The crowd tricked Brandon Nimmo.One of the stranger plays (and official-scorer rulings) occurred because Nimmo listened for the reaction of the Citi Field fans, heard the disappointed groans and ran the Mets and Juan Soto into an out.In the first inning Tuesday, Soto came up with one out and Nimmo on first and hit a liner to right-center that White Sox center fielder Michael A.Taylor made a diving attempt to catch.Taylor trapped the ball, but Nimmo — who had rounded second — reversed course, touched second and sprinted back to first base.Nimmo’s back was to the outfield and to first base umpire Tom Hanahan, who had the best angle for the play and ruled the ball had hit the grass.

In such situations, Nimmo said, he has been using “the whole environment,” notably crowd reaction, to dictate whether to continue sprinting forward or hustling the other way.Mets fans were fooled by Taylor’s strong effort, and thus, so was Nimmo, who ran past Soto on the way back to first base to rule out Soto.If there is a lesson to be learned from the play, “I guess not be so aggressive,” Nimmo said after the 6-4 win.“Maybe just watch the play a little bit more.

I think that’s probably the fix to it.“But still, I mean, I went back and looked at it, and he caught it on a short hop.So I can see where everybody was confused and thought that he caught the ball.”Some might argue that Nimmo should glance to the second base umpire, though that ump did not have the angle on the play.

Plus, Nimmo may be scarred.“That triple play [against] the Nationals — I’m not really looking [at the umps],” Nimmo said of last month’s incident in Washington, where the umpiring crew ruled a batted ball that clearly bounced was actually caught, which eliminated a potential rally with one play.Some might argue that Nimmo should glance at third base coach Mike Sarbaugh.Nimmo said he went over the replay and saw Sarbaugh react — “He was like, ‘Oh crap,’ ” — as soon as ...