For years, Clayton Kershaw has simply owned the Mets, going 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA in his career against New York, and 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA against New York at Dodger Stadium.
But on Friday night, Kershaw matched up with fellow Texan Noah Syndergaard in Los Angeles, a matchup which might have still seemed favored for the Dodgers but an intriguing pitching matchup none the less.
“When I stepped out there, it was an unbelievable experience from the get-go,” Syndergaard explained after the game. “A great atmosphere to play in, very cool stadium. It was awesome to step on the same mound as Clayton Kershaw. It was fun facing him, as well.”
Early on anyway, it seemed the Dodgers might have the upper edge after Syndergaard hung an off-speed pitch on the outer half to Adrian Gonzalez, who hit it over the center field fence for a home run in the second inning.
As it turned out, that was all Syndergaard would allow on the night, as he was magnificent for six innings while allowing just the solo home run to Gonzalez on two hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
He took a no-decision, but lowered his ERA to 3.38 for the year and has now pitched at least six innings in seven of his first ten big league starts.
He matched Kershaw pound-for-pound, posting identical 68 game scores on Friday night.
“I was really impressed,” Kershaw said of Syndergaard after the game. “We all know when big prospects come up, they’re going to have good stuff, but he really commanded the ball to both sides of the plate, threw some changeups in there too. Just another Texas kid – what do you expect?”
Syndergaard was in fact brilliant last night, particularly with his curveball which looked like an anchor dropping out of a boat, hard and down. The Dodger hitters were mostly clueless on that pitch – they swung and missed at 22 percent of the curveballs Syndergaard threw and only put four of the 27 curveballs he threw in play.
He got into some big trouble in the sixth inning after allowing two runners to reach thanks to an error of his own on a comebacker from Howie Kendrick and a walk to Justin Turner. But he hung in and threw a deadly curveball to Yasiel Puig for the third out to strand both runners.
“That’s a big-league pitch,” Terry Collins said of the last pitch to Puig. “Four starts ago, that would have been a fastball.”
What was more impressive for Syndergaard was that he made his first dominant start away from Citi Field in his career. He had a 6.52 ERA away from Flushing coming into the game, but he looked very poised and focused in a very difficult environment to play and be successful in.
It’s not that Syndergaard is better than Kershaw or even an elite pitcher at this point in his young career. But he has started to show he could eventually ascend to that elite class, and can certainly match the elite class of the league pound for pound simply with talent and guys alone at this point his career. He’s a quiet guy, but understands how to pitch, and that along with this stuff is going to be a deadly combination for the opposition for years to come.
That pitch to Puig in the sixth inning served as a small example of his extremely large potential.
Just Mets 