On a night where several players were banged up and the 2nd place Nationals put on a show with Max Scherzer‘s 20 strikeout game, the Mets proved sturdy and had a pitcher of their own steal a show.
Noah Syndergaard carried the Mets to a thrilling victory over the Dodgers in LA on Wednesday night, pitching eight terrific innings and providing all of the offense, as he hit two big-time home runs and driving in four off Kenta Maeda.
Syndergaard, or “Thor,” was also throwing 100 MPH in the 8th inning, which as Mets color commentator Ron Darling mentioned, is much more impressive than Aroldis Chapman of the Yankees hitting triple digits in relief.
On the other hand Mets closer Jeurys Familia finished off the game striking out Yasiel Puig bringing back memories of his strikeout of Howie Kendrick in last year’s Game 5 to end the division series. But Familia didn’t do so without help from the Mets’ revamped middle infield defense.
With one of the weaker lineups of this young season that included Eric Campbell and Rene Rivera reminding us ever so slightly of the first half of 2015, it was the new double play combination of Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker who showed to be the backbone with terrific defensive plays in the 9th, with Cabrera making the more crucial and difficult web gem.
With arguably the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, Clayton Kershaw, going against us in the final game of this four game set tonight, winning the first two of three in the series was crucial and now the Mets can go out and possibly steal a series on the road.
This road trip has had a few great moments already and one of those player’s who provided one of them, the ageless Bartolo Colon, toes the rubber against the Dodger’s ace.
The Mets showed impressive resilience on a night where we Mets fans were very concerned about the injuries of Steven Matz and David Wright, it seems that the Mets are a team with enough depth and star power to overcome anything.
After all, two of our aces have basically struggled all year and yet here we are in first place.
The Mets have gone 4-3 on the west coast swing thus far with 3 more against the Rockies after tonight’s game, and after that it’s on to New York for the first showdown with the Washington Nationals who will likely be neck and neck with us all year long.
Mets fans should be thrilled as this is likely to be the best divisional race in baseball. The Mets will have to deal with them and some personal hurdles as well.
With some of our pitchers not yet in top form, players like Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker having some aches and pains, concerns over Wright, Matz, and Wilmer Flores –who is heading to the disabled list with a hamstring injury– the Mets are going to have to fight through it all. And last night’s victory was a great character building victory.
