Mets to start rookie Noah Syndergaard in Game 2 of NLCS
NEW YORK — Mets manager Terry Collins named fireballing right-hander Noah Syndergaard his starting pitcher for National League Championship Series Game 2 on Sunday despite the rookie’s relief appearance on Thursday.
Syndergaard, 22, warmed up multiple times during the Mets’ National League Division Series Game 5 victory over the Dodgers before throwing 17 pitches in a scoreless seventh inning, striking out two and earning a hold.
Collins summoned him into his office on Saturday afternoon to ask how he was feeling, and Syndergaard said, “My body and my arm have never felt better.”
Collins replied, “Well, then you've got tomorrow.”
Pitching Game 2 sets up Syndergaard to pitch again in Game 6. Had he not been ready for Game 2, he would only have pitched in Game 4 with current ace Jacob deGrom lined up for Games 3 and 7 after he started NLDS Game 5. Collins estimated that Syndergaard threw about 80 pitches, including warmups on Thursday.
Syndergaard had a 3.24 ERA in his 150 regular season innings with 166 strikeouts — the sixth-best strikeout rate among starters with that many innings. He threw the most pitches of at least 95 miles per hour in the majors, with 1,421, according to Pitch F/X data at BaseballSavant.com. The Cubs batted .228 against such a velocity this year, which ranked 23rd of 30.
Between Triple A, the major league regular season and now the postseason, Syndergaard has logged 187 innings after throwing only 133 the year before. His big league debut came against the Cubs in Wrigley Field on May 12; he took the loss after allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings but believes he’s now a very different pitcher.
“I feel like I've changed night and day,” Syndergaard said, “being able to work with [pitching coach Dan Warthen] we made a lot of improvements and fine-tuned my mechanics, and implemented a secondary changeup grip, which has allowed huge strides for my career.”
Like all of the Mets young starters, the organization has tried monitoring Syndergaard’s innings to protect against injury. Collins adjusted the rotation so that Syndergaard only made four starts since the start of September, pitching on 12, 6, 5 and 7 days of rest rather than the standard four.