On Sunday Terry Collins revealed Noah Syndergaard dealt with minor forearm tightness towards the end of Spring Training, which pushed him back to the fifth spot the the Las Vegas 51s rotation.
On Monday night in Sacramento, Syndergaard made his debut for Las Vegas and allowed three runs – two earned – on seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts in four innings.
Syndergaard threw 54 pitches, 37 of which were strikes and he recorded eight ground ball outs. Due to the forearm stiffness a couple of weeks ago, Syndergaard was on a 60 pitch limit.
Syndergaard’s best inning was actually the fourth. He did as good a job as he has mixing in all four of his pitches: the fastball, change-up, slider and curve. He was up and down through the first three innings, as he was having trouble commanding his slider and curveball. That led him to falling behind a lot of the hitters, which put him in predictable counts and an inconsistent evening.
He was victimized by some bad luck in the third inning when he gave up an infield single to Matt Reynolds to lead off the game, which was followed by a Texas League single by former met Ronny Cedeno to centerfield. That setup a two-run inning for Sacramento, as the lack of off-speed command didn’t enable Syndergaard to get out of the jam.
Overall, he pitched to a lot of contact but induced a lot of ground balls, and that’s perfectly fine as long as he’s throwing quality strikes and using his entire repertoire, something he’s been criticized for not doing by the team. The slider often looked lazy, and he had trouble throwing his curveball for strikes. When he was with Single-A St. Lucie, and Double-A Binghamton, the curve was devastating and in large measure helped him have tremendous success.
Yes, it’s the Pacific Coast League, and it’s where breaking balls meet their maker. The good news is Syndergaard continued to use all of his pitches throughout his outing, he was throwing strikes like he’s known for, and that’s what the club wants to see in the final stages of his development.
Overall, this was a good first step this season for Syndergaard, but he still has work to do. The main key from this start is how Syndergaard feels today and in the coming days. Forearm tightness can be symptomatic of a major problem, and while the MRI has come back clean, this is worth closely monitoring.
For a full recap of Syndergaard’s start and the 51s win over the River Cats, check out MILB.com.
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