Looking to straighten out the course of his season, Noah Syndergaard took the mound against the Brewers on a chilly Saturday Night in New York City.

His night would start oddly, with a defensive miscue on an unnecessary throw by Pete Alonso allowed Lorenzo Cain to score from second to put the Brewers up 1-0 after a half of an inning. An inability to put hitters away with two strikes would haunt Syndergaard all night, and would also drive his pitch count up further and further.

In the second, Thor got himself in trouble right away, when he gave up singles to Orlando Arcia and Eric Thames, bringing up pitcher Brandon Woodruff with a chance to help his own cause. Syndergaard would strike out his counterpart, and then get Lorenzo Cain to ground into a double play after he walked Ben Gamel to load the bases. Syndergaard seemingly had his big moment that would stem the tide… until he didn’t.

Syndergaard gave up back to back singles to Christian Yelich and Mike Moustakas to set up a first and third with no outs for the Brewers, with Syndergaard effectively punting any momentum he had. He would strike out Yasmani Grandal and then walk Travis Shaw, setting the Brewers up with all the lily-pads on the pond filled with ducks. Thames would single into right field to score two runs, but the Mets defense would gun Shaw down at third to record a second out. Syndergaard got Arcia to ground out, ending the threat.

The fourth inning saw Syndergaard leave two pitches in two bad spots, resulting in home runs by Ben Gamel and Christian Yelich. Through four innings, Syndergaard had allowed two or more runners in every inning, totaling to nine hits and three walks. In the fifth, Syndergaard allowed a leadoff single and then retired the next three, two by strikeout and one via the ground ball.

Noah’s final line was not pretty: 5 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, and 2 HR. The main issue for Syndergaard, as it has been all season, was an inability to put hitters away with two strikes and an abundance of soft contact finding holes and slow rollers dying in the infield.

Is there anything Syndergaard can do about soft contact finding no man’s land? No. A BABIP against of .346 is absurdly high and unsustainable. His FIP entering today,2.93, was almost three full runs below his ERA of 5.90.

Syndergaard has been struck by bad luck early and often in 2019, but the numbers suggest that not much of it is to his fault. Although, it is fairly obvious that his two-strike approach on the mound must improve to keep his pitch count down and go deeper into starts.

That being said the right-hander showed an absolute loss for answers after the game as can be seen in the video below.