Noah Syndergaard looked to make up for a tough Monday night in Philadelphia in which he gave up five runs on nine hits while walking three. Unfortunately, his outing against the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon offered little comfort. Despite homering in the fourth inning, he let up four earned runs (two unearned) on eight hits and two walks en route to his second loss of the season.
Syndergaard was pinch-hit for in the top of the sixth inning, putting the nail in a second-straight start of only five innings. Following the 93-pitch effort, the righty owns a dismal 5.90 ERA. Despite stifling Cardinal baserunners for zero steals and throwing 63 strikes, Syndergaard again failed to simply put many of his 26 batters away, pitching to eight 2-2 counts and six 3-2 counts overall.
The first inning set the exact sort of tone one would expect given not only Syndergaard’s flair for the electric, but also his vulnerability to deep at-bats. He notched strikeouts of both Matt Carpenter and Paul Goldschmidt with 98 mph fastballs, albeit on a pair of full counts. Shortstop Paul DeJong had better fortunes, singling up the middle to steal a seven-pitch battle, though Syndergaard struck out Marcell Ozuna on a dirty 0-2 slider to wrap up an otherwise harmless frame.
It was during the second, however, when things would hit the first of many snags. After fooling right fielder Jose Martinez with a good curveball to swing into an 0-1 count, Syndergaard missed with the next hook before throwing three fastballs off the plate to issue a leadoff walk. A groundball base hit off the bat of Yadier Molina ruined a confident 0-2 start, but the righty appeared to pull things back with a punchout of Dexter Fowler on a changeup. Kolten Wong singled to left on a 1-2 fastball that missed its target outside, though, plating St. Louis’ first run of the day.
All told, the next four batters Syndergaard faced required six total pitches, though the results weren’t necessarily favorable. Opposing pitcher Dakota Hudson reached first thanks to an error from Amed Rosario, and Carpenter flew out to short center on a good slider, but Goldschmidt whacked a single up the middle to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead. A popout to second concluded a tumultuous inning, but Syndergaard – already at 45 pitches – didn’t fare much better over the next two.
The first crack of the third inning began with a 1-2 count on Ozuna, but ultimately saw two more missed fastballs and one slider away for a leadoff walk. Dumb luck again made an appearance, as Martinez dumped a single into right after Syndergaard jammed him inside with a 96 mph fastball to put runners on the corners. The game’s fourth run scored after Molina flailed at a good slider for a 5-3 groundout, but a fifth would score after Fowler drilled a fastball down the line for an RBI double. Again, Syndergaard made way with a quick final two outs, throwing just five pitches (all strikes) to muzzle things.
Another run scored in the fourth inning – again on the back of inconsistent, inefficient use of an otherwise impressive arsenal. Syndergaard won the first at-bat against Carpenter with a strikeout, though the slider on the outside corner made for the eighth pitch. He got ahead of Goldschmidt 1-2, but ultimately surrendered an infield hit following a 3-2 fastball – the seventh pitch of the at-bat. DeJong flew out to right on the very next pitch, but an Ozuna double off the wall would simply bring in another Cardinal run.
“This is unacceptable,” Syndergaard said following the game. “It has to change. I have to do better, I will be better. There’s just no excuse for it.”
Syndergaard’s fifth inning, save for a hard lineout to right off the bat of Fowler, was mostly painless. The righty shelled out just eight pitches to keep the Mets within three, and to some the inning could be deemed a victory: it made for the first time all series that a New York starter made it through the fifth inning. Admittedly, it marked just the second time in over two years that Syndergaard himself failed to make it to the sixth inning, though the story could have been different if not for the state of the batting order.
When asked about Syndergaard’s recent funk, pitching coach Dave Eiland opined that “he’ll be fine,” while voicing his concern over the pair of leadoff walks, a certainly unbecoming development for a pitcher who averaged under two walks per nine innings entering today’s game. Approach has plagued the flamethrower more than anything else thus far, as a combination of hittable pitches and slow at-bats have brought Syndergaard his fourth start of four earned runs or more this year. As a point of reference, he made only five such starts through 25 starts in 2018.
