So we heard about revenge a lot lately. Revenge for the pitch that Noah Syndergaard threw high and tight to Alcides Escobar in Game 3 of the World Series. You might have missed it, but the Royals exacted their unique brand of revenge before the game even started:
VIDEO 2: Noah Syndergaard was amused that the Royals played American Woman when he took… https://t.co/CIhviV9HDl pic.twitter.com/NSNND4v6Xl
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinMedia) April 5, 2016
The Mets weren’t worried about any sort of revenge. They just wanted to get out of Kansas City with a split, and they had the right guy on the mound to do it. And it’s a good thing that the Mets have all of these nasty swing and miss pitchers like Syndergaard, because they’re going to have to bail out the Mets’ shaky defense all year long. Syndergaard leads off the inning with a strikeout, but Travis d’Arnaud chunked it and Raymond Fuentes reached first base on a strikeout. The next two batters then reached on fielder’s choices, which would have been easy outs if all else was equal. Then Lorenzo Cain singled to put runners on first and third in an inning which should have been over. (I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of innings that start out like this in 2016.)
It was then that Syndergaard was at his most impressive. He walked Eric Hosmer to load the bases … didn’t even come close. But for Syndergaard to navigate the minefield of Captain Contact without giving up a run via the ever popular hit through the hole was sheer brilliance, and showed the ability of Syndergaard to put ego over id. He must have known that Kendrys Morales with the bases loaded was somehow less dangerous than Hosmer with two runners on. And he was correct. Morales meekly struck out on three pitches so nasty that if Joe Torre could think of a way to ban them, he would.
GIF: Did we just witness @Noahsyndergaard throw a 95 MPH SLIDER?! pic.twitter.com/v5BGdNGKLp
— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) April 5, 2016
Yeah, American Bad Ass is more like it, K.C.
Then there was Jim Henderson, who blazed through the seventh with top notch stuff. I’ve got high hopes for him, and he carried over his good spring to give us a dazzling inning against the champs. The Brewer castoff could turn a ? into a ! in a hurry.
Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia finished off the three hit shutout, and the Mets go into their two day ESPN induced break at 1-1, which is better than 0-2 when you’re dealing with the New York media. And hey, the Mets got their two runs on a home run by 2016’s initial championship belt carrier Neil Walker, who has now helped win the same amount of games as the second baseman over there in Washington. And he handled a tough ninth inning groundout with defiance whereas the other guy would have probably reacted by kicking his own head and spontaneously bursting into flames.
Wait …
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I get it, American Woman … because he has long hair. Hey that’s hysterical, Kansas City. Remind me to check out your burgeoning sophomoric comedy scene next time I’m in town.
Today’s Hate List:
- Alcides Escobar
- Lorenzo Cain
- Kendrys Morales
- Rob Riggle
- Eddie Griffin
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
