Just Mets

For years as both an amateur and professional, the journey to a big league mound seemed all but certain, clear and easy for Noah Syndergaard.

But last year, Syndergaard found himself truly challenged for the first time in his career. As good as his curveball always was, he could no longer simply rely on what was always an electric and advanced fastball for his age to get people out when he arrived at Triple-A. It was now up to him to become a pitcher, someone who can use all of his pitches, outthink the batter in the batters box who very well might have already seen major league pitching in his career.

That’s the pitching maturity Syndergaard needed to develop if he wanted to be promoted to the Mets. And that was the very reason he wasn’t promoted when rosters expanded last September.

That left Syndergaard upset as his season drew to a close. It left him bound and determined to get here as soon as he possibly could, and potentially prove the Mets front office wrong in their decision to leave him off the 40-man roster last September, Terry Collins opined on Sunday.

“Those guys that have that chip, like ‘Hey, you screwed up and I’m going to show you,’ those guys become really, really successful,’’ Collins said on Sunday afternoon. “I wouldn’t doubt that’s in his makeup.”

All things considered, Syndergaard got here as fast as he could, and matured his approach on the mound as fast as he could. Sure, part of it was the result of an injury to Dillon Gee, but also that he earned the promotion, Sandy Alderson said at the time he promoted his top pitching prospect.

And so, the Syndergaard era for the Mets began last week, as he joined Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom as the jewels of their vision for success for years to come.

His first start was a success last week in Wrigley Field,, but it was his start on Sunday in front of the home crowd which displayed everything everyone within both the organization and industry has been talking about since he was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2010.

Syndergaard dazzled the Brewers for six innings, allowing only a run on three hits with a walk and five strikeouts, earning his first big league win in front of more than 32,000 who came to see Syndergaard for the first time.

“It was a dream come true to be able to step on that mound,’’ Syndergaard said after the win.

Syndergaard threw 67 of his 95 pitches for strikes. He threw 15 first-pitch strikes to the 23 batters he faced.

His stuff was overpowering on Sunday, particularly his curveball which, like it was in his debut on Tuesday, particularly nasty as it darted out of the zone late. He mixed his curveball in beautifully, and got the Milwaukee batters to swing at 8 of the 11 he threw for strikes – they didn’t put a single curveball in play on Sunday.

His fastball though was absolutely mystifying. He threw 49 of the 59 he threw for strikes, and they averaged 98.2 mph. That effectively setup his curveball which moved hard and down, completely changing the eye level of the Brewers hitters.

It was a remarkable display of power, so much so that it impressed Brewers manager Craig Counsell.

“I didn’t see a pitch under 95,” Counsell said after the game. “That’s the hardest throwing starter in the league from what I see.”

Perhaps the most impressive part of Syndergaard’s performance was after he inadvertently hit Carlos Gomez in the head with one of those blazing fastballs. He was clearly rattled – which is understandable – but he buckled down and passed a major mental hurdle to keep Milwaukee off the board.

“The real character was after he hit Gomez. Is he going to be able to settle down, reign himself in? And he did,” Collins said.

“It’s never happened to me before, so it kind of rattled me a bit, maybe made me tentative to go inside to hitters,” Syndergaard explained. “If that hadn’t happened before, I probably would’ve been inside to Braun instead of just throwing it away. But I bounced back.”

Collins said on Sunday afternoon he doesn’t know how the rotation will play out when Gee comes off the disabled list, which could be sometime within the next week.

“An outing like today makes [the looming rotation decisions] hard,” Collins said about Syndergaard.

No, it really doesn’t.

There’s no question Syndergaard has shown his evolvement as a pitcher, and that he belongs here and now. He’s carried the lessons he’s learned from his struggles last year into the big leagues. He’s a pitcher, who is using all of his pitches and throwing strikes, something which isn’t often the case when young pitchers get here.

While the road hasn’t been easy recently, his time has come to be here and not go back to Triple-A.