Terry Collins told reporters this afternoon that Noah Syndergaard will start Game 2 of the NLCS on Sunday.
“Well, Noah came in today, and I ran by all the scenarios that certainly we have had with all of these young pitchers this season, and that is, Okay, you’re at 187 innings for the year, how are you feeling?”
“He said, “I’m feeling great. I feel great. I’m not stiff. I’m not sore.” And I said, “Well, then you’ve got tomorrow.”
Collins explained how important it was to him for Syndergaard to pitch on Sunday rather than Steven Matz.
“I mean, I love these young pitchers. They’re going to be so good. We just thought if you had to sit down right now with what we’ve seen in the last month of the season, and that’s as far back as I’m going to go, if you had to put the four guys that were in the rotation right now, it would go basically deGrom, Harvey and Syndergaard at the top.”
“No disrespect to Steven, but he just hasn’t pitched a lot. We want him to start, so we put him in the bullpen tonight. Hopefully get him an inning here in the next couple days, but he’ll pitch Game 4.”
“We like the matchups, and tomorrow night and tonight. This is just like the Dodgers, we’ve got two of the best in the game we’ve got to face. So we kind of like the matchups.”
Matz, of course, is your Game 4 starter.
October 16
Earlier today I was curious as to why a decision had yet to be made on who would start Game 2 of the National League Championship Series opposite Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta.
It turns out the reason, as explained by Terry Collins, is that Noah Syndergaard ended up throwing over 100 pitches warming up before entering the game in relief at Dodger Stadium on Thursday and tossing 17 more pitches in an electric seventh inning. As a result he is feeling sore today.
“I’m certainly well aware I got him up four times last night. You can almost say he got ready four times. That could have almost been five innings of work, because I knew he threw over 100 pitches warming up. So if he’s still tender tomorrow, he’s probably not going to be the Game 2 guy. So that’s why I said I don’t have one at the moment.”
According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, if Steven Matz were to pitch Game 2 instead of Syndergaard, then that would push him to Game 4. That would result in Syndergaard making just one start in the NLCS while Matz would make two – Games 2 and 6
Matt Harvey figures to start Games 1 and 5, while Jacob deGrom figures to start Games 3 and 7.
I love Matz and all, but I sure hope Thor is feeling significantly better tomorrow and that he can make that Game 2 start.
