There are several words that can be used to describe Noah Syndergaard’s performance on Friday night against the Diamondbacks.
Dominant is one that immediately comes to mind. Filthy is another. Ace-like could also be used to describe Syndergaard’s performance as well.
Perhaps all three rolled into one.
But it also felt like a very clutch performance for the dominant and filthy Syndergaard who also made an ace-like performance in the club’s 4-2 win over the Diamondbacks on Friday night.
There are a couple of reasons why Syndergaard’s flithy, dominant and ace-like performance was clutch.
First off, it came on a day when Sandy Alderson delivered some sobering news about the fact that pitchers break in that Steven Matz is going to be out for the forseeable future as he allows his torn lat muscle to heal.
Second, it came against the Diamondbacks, the surprise club with the best offense in the league who is breathing down the necks of the New York Mets in a parity ridden wild card race as the club nears the All-Star break.
Third, the Mets absolutely had to win, because both the Nationals and the Cubs lost their respective contests.
All of that happened for Syndergaard. He shutdown the best offense in the league in dominant fashion for eight innings in which he allowed just a run on four hits with two walks and a career-high 13 strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the season.
“The ability to change speeds was the reason for my success tonight. Get ahead of hitters and get ahead with my breaking pitches as well,” said Syndergaard. “I feel I threw some really quality changeups in there, too.”
Quality is an understates the nature of his change-up on Friday. He threw 12 of his 15 change-ups for strikes. He induced ten swings, four of which were swings and misses. The Arizona offense only put two of his change-ups in play the entire night, both of which were outs.
His curveball and slider were also unhittable on Friday. They only put two of those in play and Syndergaard induced a total of nine swings and misses against 19 of which he threw for strikes.
And, then there was his fastball which averaged 97.5 mph. 29 of the 34 fastballs he threw for strikes were not put in play, either.
All told, Syndergaard needed a career-high 116 pitches to get through his eight brilliant innings.
“I didn’t know that was a career high,” Terry Collins said in somewhat shock. “That’s a piece of information I needed to hear.”
One of the reasons Syndergaard was stretched out on Friday was because he will be pitching once again on the sixth day, Collins explained, thanks to the All-Star break and the club resetting their rotation ahead of their two series against the Cardinals and Nationals to open the second half.
But in each one of those 116 pitches, it was clear why the club has put so much stock in the young Texan they acquired for R.A. Dickey nearly three years ago. He’s a very special and unique talent who is only improving with each passing start. It’s evident in the way he pitches, in the way he adjusts, and his improving poise and confidence with each of these success stories in 2015.
But again, he showed a unique intangible in that he rose to the occasion against more adversity on Friday. That’s an important showing, especially for a kid with 11 career starts under his belt.
“You’ve got to be resilient. You’ve got to take the good times with the bad. Yesterday was tough but [Syndergaard] had a job to do,” Collins explained in response to losing Matz. He’s pitching good right now and he knows it. When you’ve got that kind of stuff and you pound the strike zone, you’re going to get outs.”
“I was able to not press the panic button,” Syndergaard said.
It’s nice to know that when the Mets are feeling the heat of their first pennant race – whether its in 2015 or 2016 – they have a horse they can ride with confidence.
Just Mets 