The New York Mets were able to open up their home stand with a 10-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Although delayed by a severe thunderstorm that affected the New York tristate area, this game eventually began at an official time of 8:35. Taking the mound for the Mets very fittingly was Noah Syndergaard, often called “Thor”, the God of Thunder in Greek Mythology. While he didn’t have his best start, he was able to work through some difficulties. In his start, he struggled with high counts during at bats to many Toronto hitters. Too often he went fishing for a strikeout, and this led to him throwing 103 pitches despite only going five innings.
Over those five innings, Syndergaard struck out seven, walked two, and allowed two earned runs over that stretch. My Gut Reaction in regards to Syndergaard is that he was hunting for the strike out too many times, and that he could have had a more successful outing if he put less emphasis on them. While he didn’t bring his thunder on the mound, he brought it offensively, as did his teammates. Syndergaard had an RBI double and a sacrifice fly, which provided the Mets with their first two runs of the game.
This came in the fourth inning, which was a breakout inning for the team offensively. They scored five runs in that bottom of the fourth. There were multiple key offensive performances in the lineup that helped the Mets accomplish their offensive outburst. Devin Mesoraco was 2-2 with three walks, and those two hits being a two run home run and a single. Juan Lagares had a huge night as well, going 4-5 with a triple and three RBIs. Lastly, Amed Rosario was 3-4 with a double and two RBIs. It was huge for Mesoraco and Rosario to have big games on offense so that the team has reliability towards the bottom of the lineup. Rosario has absolutely tore it up lately at the plate, and he is looking more and more like the second leadoff hitter that the Mets intended him to be at the beginning of the season.
With the victory over their American league foe, the Mets improve to 20-18 on the season, while Syndergaard moved his record to 3-1. Tomorrow, the Mets will again host the Blue Jays in a matinee game that is slated to start at 1:10. Zach Wheeler is expected to duel with J.A Happ, who has struggled in his last three starts.
Who needs Cespedes and Conforto?
Gary and Ron talked about Syndergaard going away from his fastball after he struck out the side in the first inning. The problem isn’t going for strikeouts, it’s constantly throwing too many pitches out of the strike zone that don’t ever appear to be strikes to make batters chase. The starters need to attack more and quit nibbling.
On the radio side, the boys were talking about how his fastball in the fifth was still sitting in the 97-98 range, but he continues to aim low, where lesser players can just “drop the bat on the ball”, rather than elevate like deGrom does. This is the second straight game the radio guys are talking about Syndergaard not using the top of the zone effectively to exploit the uppercut swings.
TV guys talked some about that, too.
As you know, I’m a big fan of mixing locations and I think this is what Noah needs to do. But I also believe that this is a goal for him to work towards, not necessarily something he can just do at the snap of the fingers. If you spend all your life trying to throw 98 in the bottom of the strike zone, it’s got to be difficult to go out there and throw it letter high.
As he works on throwing upstairs, I’d like him to throw inside some. At least once a game I’d like to see him throw that pitch that he did in the World Series.
I think you’ve nailed it, Brian. Location is the most crucial part of Strike 3 or a batted out, for the Pitcher.
Noah has lived on Velocity and Movement…and he’s added some very nice Secondary Pitches. He’s a Great Arm with Great Stuff—he’s not a Great Pitcher until he uses his mix and location to be more efficient. He’s working too hard for every out!
He’s a Strikeout Pitcher… He should remain a Strikeout Pitcher. He is regularly at elevated Pitch Counts that prevent him from remaining in games. Location and Mix will make the outs easier, and it will keep him in games and winning.
ps…. he’s absolutely overly fascinated by the Radar Gun (and maybe his Bench Press).
They have it broken down by every strike count so you can see what the pitches were 0-2 or 1-2 or 2-2 or 3-2 but not one option for two strikes.
This month, Syndergaard has thrown 19 pitches with a 1-2 count. Eight pitches in the strike zone and 11 outside the zone. And at 2-2 there were 20 pitches, with 11 outside the zone.
I would feel better about our chances today against JA Happ, but we really have not been hitting lefties. Could use a Flores breakout.
Awesome game from Lagares last night.
Also, last night’s game was a perfect example of “that’s why they play the games.” Looking at that lineup missing four regulars I would have bet the house they wouldn’t have scored more than 3 runs. No Ces, Conforto, Frazier or TDA, no problem – 10 runs?!
I thought using Lugo last night was a complete waste of a quality bullpen arm. He was brought into a 9-2 game. What a waste!! So what if he was “already warm” after he was warming up with the score being 6-2?
As the rout was developing, there would have been plenty of time to get some of the lesser lights down there up and bring a couple of them in to mop up. Rhame and Baumann come to mind.
I just don’t see any need to use Lugo for 3 innings as a mop up man. Better to have saved him for later in the week for a potentially much more important spot.
Actually, that was probably the only reason he was used. But why not kill two birds with one stone? Stretch him out in a spot where it can make a difference between a win or loss, not a 9-2 (at the time) rout.