Noah Syndergaard had a very weird start on Monday night in the Mets 7-6 extra inning win over the Phillies. He gave up a five runs in five innings but also managed to get 9 strikeouts and got unlucky at times.

In the first inning, Noah worked around an infield hit in the first inning and struck out Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen while doing so. He mostly went with his sinker and slider in that inning. In the second, he worked around a one-out single but also managed to strikeout J.T. Realmuto.

The third inning is when the wheels loosened for Syndergaard. He walked Aaron Nola albeit with the help of a few missed calls. He also gave up a double to Andrew McCutchen. He did manage to strikeout Jean Segura but Harper followed with a RBI single moments later. Despite striking out Rhys Hoskins, he gave up a two-run single to Realmuto.

Here is a photo of his pitch locations from that inning.

(Courtesy of Baseball Savant)

There were about three pitches that could have been called a strike in that inning. The inning and the at-bat to Nola would have ended far differently than it would have.

The fourth was similar too, in that he got the lead but could not hold it. He gave up a single to Cesar Hernandez and a homer to Maikel Franco. He got himself into more trouble by giving up a hit to Nick Williams and Segura (sandwiched between a McCutchen strikeout). Fortunately though, he got Harper to hit into a double play and end the threat.

The fifth inning was pretty quiet all things considered. He struck out Hoskins and worked around a walk to Realmuto by striking out Odubel Hererra.

For the most part, Noah’s pitches were up in the strike zone.

(Courtesy of Baseball Savant)

As I have mentioned before, Noah does not generate a lot of spin on any of his pitches. For him to be great, he needs to locate it very well. He will get a lot of swings and misses regardless of his location due to his velocity but location will be what makes him great.

It was a cold night, he was facing a stacked lineup, and had some calls go against him. I expect him to better next time around when he faces the Cardinals.

Also in this game, Noah got his 600th strikeout. Ryan Spaeder noted some of the guys on the list that he beat to 600. Some of those include Nolan Ryan, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson. Yeah it is a different era, I am aware. Still a cool thing none the less.