Just Mets

Noah Syndergaard has quickly emerged to become one of the elite rookie starting pitchers in baseball, and unquestionably a candidate to become the National League’s Rookie of the Year, with an outside chance of winning the coveted award.

He once again showed off his top shelf prowess against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Friday night, allowing just two runs on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts in seven innings.

Unfortunately, the two runs Syndergaard allowed were too much for the Mets offense to overcome, as the club fell to 13-38 when scoring three or less runs in a game in their 3-1 loss to the first place Cardinals.

“I feel like I threw pretty good on the mound,” Syndergaard explained about his performance. “I was able to establish first-pitch strikes. I felt like I threw a lot of strikes tonight. I think I just made one mistake, to [Jhonny Peralta]. Probably a little different pitch, maybe a little better location, and I could have had a different result.”

That one mistake to Peralta was a hanging breaking ball in the sixth inning. He drove it just out of the reach of Kirk Nieuwenhuis and over the left field fence to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.

The Mets fell to 0-37 when trailing after six innings in 2015.

Syndergaard was brilliant on Friday. His fastball seemed to have extra electricity up and in to the right-handed hitters, so much so it almost seemed like the St. Louis hitters had trouble seeing the ball. Then he would drop his curve and slider in the other direction, leaving the Cardinals completely baffled for most of the night.

Unfortunately, no pitcher is perfect, and no pitcher can control what happens once the ball leaves his hand.

In the case of Syndergaard and the sixth inning, he was plagued by a blooper behind second base which the shortstop, second baseman, and center fielder could not catch off the bat of Kolten Wong. Then, Wilmer Flores did not backup a poor throw from Kevin Plawecki on Wong’s stolen base attempt, which allowed him to reach third. He would score on an RBI groundout by the slumping Matt Carpenter.

Now, Wong’s ball should have been caught, and it wasn’t. Plawecki’s throw should have been backed up, and it wasn’t. There’s no question about it. And, no club can give the Cardinals extra outs and expect to beat them.

But, these things happen, seemingly a lot to the Mets. But because the Mets do not have the offense it takes to overcome these mistakes, they all seem to end up costing the Mets runs and costing the Mets games.

It almost seems like the Mets aren’t competing against other teams more than they’re competing against their own demons on a nightly basis, regardless of the opponent. That forces the pitcher – whether it’s Syndergaard or anyone else – to execute each pitch perfectly, and it’s totally unfair to expect that to happen.

And, it won’t happen.

But despite these problems and the loss on Friday, it’s hard to ignore what Syndergaard’s impressive run to start his big league career, despite a 4-5 record.

He has posted an impressive 3.05 ERA and an ERA+ of 122 over his first 73 2/3 big league innings. The home run he allowed to Peralta on Friday night was just the sixth he’s allowed in 12 starts – he’s only allowed two home runs in his last 33 innings of work. He’s posted a 5.2 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 9.53 strikeouts-per-nine-innings in his first 12 starts.

“I feel like the string of starts I’ve put together together have established a lot of confidence in me,” Syndergaard said while reminiscing about his season. “All six of us in the rotation, we just attack the strike zone. I feel like that’s the most important part.”

It’s one thing to have the talent. It’s another to couple that with the guile it takes to win, and Syndergaard has been able to show he has that very early in his career. His last two starts on the road against the Dodgers and Cardinals are an indication of that intangible.

Now, the Mets need to find a way to support this special talent with some offense.