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Mets' travel for home opener delayed by late-night random drug test

Al Bello / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The New York Mets faced a quick turnaround between Wednesday night's road game in Miami against the Marlins and Thursday afternoon's contest at home versus the Washington Nationals, and it was made even more tiresome by a late-night random drug test.

The team had to catch a plane back to New York following Wednesday's affair and didn't arrive home until around 3 a.m., as a result of the postgame testing, according to Tim Healy of Newsday.

New York ended up dropping its home opener 4-0 to Washington, mustering only four hits. After the game, outfielder Brandon Nimmo shared his thoughts on the tough circumstances.

“Most of us were probably running on five hours of sleep or so. It's a tough one, that's ... how baseball is, sometimes you get the short end of the stick and you got to perform," Nimmo said, according to Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports. "None of us tried to make it an excuse and we all tried to get ready the best we could."

Before the game, Nimmo called the test "abnormal" and explained that the Mets took part in three rounds of drug testing during the three-game series against the Marlins.

"We were like, well, that really tops things off," Nimmo told Healy. "(Mets players were) definitely upset about it. It's random and you gotta do what you gotta do. It's just part of the game.

"It was unfortunate. It's bad timing. It made a short night even shorter - especially for the home opener. But it's part of baseball, you just have to roll with the punches."

The drug tests are overseen by an independent third party, in accordance with Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association's joint drug agreement.

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