Just Mets

Noah Syndergaard made his long awaited arrival to the Mets on May 12 when the Mets were in Chicago. He was coming off a tremendous run of success with Triple-A Las Vegas, capped by a stellar eight inning performance in which he allowed just two runs with eight strikeouts in eight innings against the Albuqerque Isotopes.

As it turned out, his run in the minors was just the beginning of what is looking like a stellar start to his career.

Syndergaard’s latest outing was nothing short of spectacular and easily the best start he’s made so far with the Mets in 2015. He pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings while allowing only six hits and six strikeouts, improving to 2-2 with a 2.55 ERA for the year with 22 strikeouts and only five walks in 24 2/3 innings.

Syndergaard became the first pitcher in team history to have at least five or more strikeouts in each of his first four career games.

“You saw bits and pieces of it throughout these four games,” Kevin Plawecki said after the game. “But I think today was really a full package deal.”

He was, primarily because he’s still learning and adapting literally on the fly. He incorporated a new two-seam fastball he learned just last week from Dan Warthen into his repertoire yesterday, and it was simply deadly, specifically against left-handed pitching. The average velocity of his two-seamer was nearly 98 mph, and he nearly tipped 101 mph with it in the first inning. He threw that pitch 68 percent of the time for strikes against the left-handed hitters, and 15 of those 26 two-seamers he threw for strikes were not put in play.

“The amount of knowledge I have gained so far since I have been up here working with Dan has been a lot,” Syndergaard explained. “He has so much wisdom when it comes to pitching, I feel like every time I go out there, I get better at a certain thing.”

The 7 1/3 innings he threw on Wednesday were the most he’s thrown in a game so far in the big leagues. Yet, he was extremely efficient throughout the afternoon – he averaged a season-low 13.77 pitches per inning.

“I just feel every time I go out there I’m getting better at a certain thing,” Syndergaard said.

Dan Warthen is very pleased with Syndergaard’s progress to date, but is still challenging him to learn and get even better. So far, he has risen to that challenge.

“He has shown he has legitimate major-league stuff,” Warthen said, according to Kristie Ackert of the Daily News, “but he still has things to learn. He has a few little tempo things to work on — a little bit of methodical stuff to get out of so that the baserunners don’t recognize his methodology. He has things to learn, of course, but he will learn them up here.”

In addition to his performance on the mound, Syndergaard also helped his cause at the plate on Wednesday. He went 3-for-3 and hit a long home run to center field in the fourth inning.

“That was impressive,” Michael Cuddyer said afterwards. “That’s a long way to hit a ball. You don’t see too many pitchers do that.”

Syndergaard intends to give the home run ball to his dad for his birthday, which is today. But while his performance at the plate was impressive, it’s not the most important thing to him right now.

“My main focus is on the mound right now,” Syndergaard said. “[the offense is] extra.”

It is, but it’s certainly comforting to know the Mets have a more complete lineup when he’s in it. Terry Collins said he would consider using Syndergaard as a pinch hitter in certain situations, but it would be unwise to expose him to frequently for risk of injury.

Up until the Mets decided to go with a six-man rotation, the question was whether or not Syndergaard would remain in the big leagues when Dillon Gee returns. There was no debating then he belonged here, and there is certainly no question now.

Like Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, he is a unique and special talent who, with the raw stuff he has, can ultimately be equally as good and accomplished as those two, if not better than that. He has shown an immediate ability to come here, immediately throw strikes and make quick and necessary adjustments from inning-to-inning and from start-to-start. In the case of his start yesterday, he dominated with a pitch he had never thrown in his life.

That’s some adjustment, and a testament to his pitching maturity.

It’s no longer a question of whether or not he belongs here – he does. The question is, how good is he going to get from here?