An article by Tim Ryder

From the start of the second half through his six-inning, scoreless effort versus Cleveland on August 22 (eight starts; 54.1 innings), New York Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard owned a 1.82 ERA with 55 strikeouts and 12 walks.

From August 28 through his last start in Colorado on September 18 (five starts; 25.2 IP), the 27-year-old put up a 7.36 ERA with seven home runs allowed — and that’s including his seven scoreless innings at Washington on September 2.

You can only place so much blame on who’s behind the dish with results like that.

It goes without saying that, heading into Tuesday’s start versus Miami, Syndergaard was in desperate need of a tide-turning outing.

Nevermind the Mets’ floundering postseason hopes; Thor needed to escape his personal doldrums.

After allowing two consecutive singles via Jon Berti and Miguel Rojas (both stole a base in the inning) to start his night, Syndergaard buckled down to strike out Neil Walker, Starlin Castro, and Monday night’s standout, Jorge Alfaro, to leave them stranded.

Isan Diaz led off the second with a first-pitch solo homer to put the Fish ahead, 1-0. Diaz, 23, went up and out of the strike zone to take a 97 MPH Syndergaard sinker deep to the opposite field. Cap tip.

Austin Dean sliced a one-out double into the right-field corner later in the frame and hustled home from second on Berti’s two-out infield hit to make it 2-0 game.

Berti stole second but Syndergaard induced a Rojas groundout to leave him in scoring position.

Walker sent a double down the first-base line leading off the third and advanced on Castro’s groundout in the next at-bat, leaving Syndergaard in another jam.

After striking out Alfaro, Diaz struck again, poking a two-out RBI single between Robinson Cano and Pete Alonso to extend Miami’s lead to 3-0.

Berti reached for the third time (his seventh base hit of the series) with his two-out infield hit in the fourth, but Noah got Rojas to ground out again, ending the inning.

After falling behind 0-2 on a rare changeup-changeup combo from Syndergaard, Walker notched his second double of the evening to kick off the fifth. Cool sequence. Not so great result.

The former Mets second baseman advanced to third on Castro’s groundout and came home to score on Alfaro’s weakly-hit RBI single back up the middle, making it a 4-0 game and securing Syndergaard’s fourth consecutive start allowing four earned runs.

Alfaro stole second — yes, all 6’2″ and 225 lbs. of him — for Miami’s fourth swiped bag of the night as Diaz struck out but was left stranded on second after Harold Ramirez‘ 6-3 groundout.

That would be the end of Syndergaard’s night after allowing four runs on ten hits over five innings with seven strikeouts and no walks. Syndergaard’s ERA on the season increased from 4.22 to 4.30.

Noah picked up 11 swings-and-misses and 11 called strikes on 85 pitches (59 strikes), inducing an admirably-low 78.5 MPH average exit velocity on a whopping 18 balls in play.

Weak contact or not, ineffectiveness is ineffectiveness.