Noah Syndergaard looked to finally be turning his shaky season around his last time out, when he fired a shutout with ten strikeouts against the Reds. He went to the mound on Tuesday night looking to continue that dominance and get his season back on the right track.
Things were rocky right from the first inning, when Syndergaard gave up back-to-back one-out singles to Franmil Reyes and Manny Machado. Eric Hosmer then hit a ground ball to Pete Alonso that Alonso threw to Amed Rosario for the second out of the inning. Syndergaard, scrambling over to first base to try to complete the double play, ran past the first base bag as Rosario’s throw got by him, allowing a run to score. The error was charged to Rosario, and while it was not a perfect throw, that play was really on Syndergaard for not being in the right position to receive that throw.
Nevertheless, Syndergaard struck out Hunter Renfroe to escape the first frame with only the one unearned run allowed.
In the second, Syndergaard gave up an opposite-field single to Ty France, but Michael Conforto made a great throw to nab France trying to stretch into a double. Rosario also did a great job to hold the tag on France, recording the out once France came off the bag. He then settled down, inducing groundouts from the next two batters.
Syndergaard recorded three more groundouts in the third inning, except it came along with a two-out solo homer by Reyes on a 98 mph fastball, tying the game at two apiece. He continued to give up some more hard-hit balls in the fourth inning, allowing a sharply hit double by Renfroe followed by a two-run homer by France, his first Major League home run. Francisco Mejia singled for the third hit of the inning, but Syndergaard escaped that frame without any further damage.
The fifth was Syndergaard’s best inning, a perfect frame that included a strikeout of Reyes. He did, however, give up two well-hit fly balls to Ian Kinsler and Machado that just didn’t quite have enough on them to get out.
Syndergaard’s brief groove didn’t last long though, as the sixth inning began with a Hosmer double and a Renfore RBI single to make it 5-2 Padres. Renfroe stole second, and then Syndergaard walked Wil Myers, his first and only walk of the evening. Syndergaard was able to limit the damage in the inning by striking out Mejia and getting Alex Dickerson to fly out, limiting disaster in a disappointingly mediocre performance.
Syndergaard’s control was very good and he kept his composure without allowing things to spiral out of control, but it was still a step back from his dominant performance his last time out. It was another one of those shaky displays where he allows a lot of hits and throws a lot of pitches and just can’t quite mow hitters down like we have seen him due in the past. He was still throwing in the upper 90s, and he only walked one, but his command of his pitches wasn’t quite there last night, with nine hits allowed in the six innings he pitched.
Syndergaard’s final line was five runs (four earned) on nine hits, one walk, and five strikeouts in six innings.
Despite Syndergaard’s subpar performance, the Mets came back on a seventh-inning rally and a tiebreaking two-run homer in the ninth by Alonso. Edwin Diaz got the save as the Mets held on to win 7-6.
Syndergaard will look to shake this off and get back to how he pitched against the Reds in his next start, which will likely come on Sunday or Monday.
