Noah Syndergaard was unable to replicate his spring debut in his second go-around against the Houston Astros this afternoon. Despite leaving them hitless through his two and two-thirds innings of work, Syndergaard walked five batters on 51 pitches – something he has done just twice in his 86 career starts.

Just this past Monday, the righty worked a scoreless two innings in a road start against the Astros, striking out two while shelling out just 23 bullets – 18 for strikes. Such was not the case today, as Syndergaard would throw 27 outside the strike zone despite whiffing four batters.

The tone was set relatively early when Syndergaard threw his first five pitches – all fastballs – for balls. He broke the funk by inducing a deep opposite-field flyout from José Altuve, which in turn allowed leadoff man George Springer to advance to second.

Following a payoff fastball to Alex Bregman that missed outside, Syndergaard induced a double-play grounder on a good slider to Michael Brantley. He would drop the relay throw from Danny Espinosa, however, leading to Springer scoring to get Houston out to a 1-0 lead.

Syndergaard described what he believed was going wrong at the start of the game.

The righty responded well with a three-pitch strikeout of catcher Robinson Chirinos to end the first, and looked to have resolved his command issues the following frame. He made great use of his changeups to carve up both A.J. Reed and Aledmys Díaz via strikeouts, and got a one-pitch 4-3 grounder from outfielder Derek Fisher to end the inning at a much more efficient 12 pitches.

The third inning began on a similar note when Jake Marisnick tapped out to second on a sharp 0-1 slider, though the wheels would ultimately come off for Syndergaard with the turn of the batting order. After working back from a 2-0 count against Springer, he proceeded to miss with a low slider and upstairs fastball to walk him.

The narrative, which had likewise sullied a number of Syndergaard’s five and six-inning appearances through much of last season, repeated itself, as Altuve walked on five pitches, though not before Springer stole second base. And after falling behind Bregman 2-1, the Astros would pull off a double-steal. Bregman would also walk two pitches later.

Manager Mickey Callaway opted to keep Syndergaard in for one more at-bat against Brantley – a move that would pay off nicely, with the righty spotting up three pitches for three strikes to end a turbulent afternoon on a positive note. Syndergaard evidently carried it with him in his postgame comments.

Chris Flexen would relieve Syndergaard, getting a groundout from Chirinos to leave the bases loaded. Syndergaard wound up with the no-decision in the Mets’ 8-7 loss, and is still expected to take the hill at some point next week. Whether or not he pitches to Wilson Ramos again or returns to his pseudo-personal backstop in Tomás Nido remains unclear.

Syndergaard did figure out what the issue from today’s first inning was, which certainly should make people more comfortable than if he were unable to diagnose the issue.