The New York Mets roll out several young superheroes in their pitching staff and Friday night was Thor’s turn to wow the Citi Field crowd.
Rookie Noah Syndergaard didn’t disappoint as he pitched a gem against an impressive Diamondbacks lineup, propelling the Mets to a 4-1 victory.
Syndergaard, in his first career start against Arizona, was absolutely brilliant after getting tagged for an early run in the first inning.
He blanked them from that point on and finished with a career-high 13 strikeouts over eight innings. He also threw a career-high 116 pitches, a benefit of having extra rest due to the Mets’ six-man rotation of late. With the third double-digit strikeout performance of his young career, the 22-year-old Syndergaard lowered his season ERA to 3.11.
The Mets supported him with back-to-back home runs by Lucas Duda and Michael Cuddyer in the bottom half of the first to jump ahead 4-1 against Chase Anderson, who lasted only 4.1 innings. Those four first-inning runs were all the Mets would need and the hibernation of their bats over the remainder of the game went seemingly unnoticed during Syndergaard’s masterful display.
All three of Syndergaard’s pitches were working on Friday night. He fanned six batters on his electric fastball, five on his sharp diving curveball and two on his 88 mph changeup.
With their victory, the Mets moved to within two games of the first place Washington Nationals in the East. The Diamondbacks fell back under .500 and will have to face Matt Harvey on Saturday afternoon.
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