New York Mets ace, Noah Syndergaard pitched a quality game in last night’s 5-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Thor tossed 6.2 innings, while allowing three runs on seven hits and striking out nine.
The hard-throwing righty did not have his normal pinpoint control and departed the game with a no-decision. He later said he felt uncomfortable with his delivery during his outing.
“I didn’t feel very comfortable with my delivery,” Syndergaard said. “… You’re going to go out there every once in a while and you’re not going to have your best stuff. You’ve got to go out there and grind it out and put your team in the best possible situation to win a ballgame.” (ESPN)
He did just that, leaving the mound with his team up by a score of 3-2 with a runner on first. Reliever, Antonio Bastardo was unable to stop the bleeding, allowing the inherited runner to score to tie the game at three.
Syndergaard had more rest than normal, not having worked in six days. Manager, Terry Collins believed that it could have had something to do with his lack of control. Syndergaard was also working at a much slower pace than normal, noted by pitching coach, Dan Warthen.
“Early in the game, the game just dragged along, it seemed like,” Collins said.
Syndergaard’s biggest issue of the night came down to stolen bases. The Reds were running on him at will, stealing five bases on the night. He was timed on his delivery to the plate last night by a scout who found he averaged between 1.33 and 1.39 seconds to the plate with a runner on first. Pitchers are said to be most effective when getting to the plate between 1.25 and 1.30 seconds, when holding runners on. Travis d’Arnaud‘s inconsistency with throwing out runners did not help his case as well.
“They got huge jumps on him,” the scout said. “And it didn’t help that d’Arnaud was 2.05 to 2.16 to second, which is below average.”
Runners have now been able to steal 24 bases out of 26 attempts against Syndergaard.
“I will tell you, I don’t know a lot of great big pitchers who are real quick to the plate,” Collins said. “Those real tall guys, there’s a lot of action. There’s a lot of movement. It’s really hard to get those guys below that 1.30 mark that you kind of look for. But we’ve still got to get better at it. There’s no question.”
Overall, Syndergaard had a nice night on the mound, even when not feeling like he had everything going for him, a true sign of a great pitcher.
