The Mets are built around pitching, with the second-best team ERA (2.78) in MLB. The Mets live and die by the home run, leading all of MLB with 51 in 33 games. Which is true? For Noah Syndergaard on Wednesday night, they both were.
Syndergaard went eight innings against the Dodgers, allowing two runs on six hits and one walk while striking out six. Another strong performance by Thor. But it would have been all for naught if not for two Met homers accounting for all four of their runs. And who hit both those homers? Syndergaard!
Squawker Lisa, you will be pleased to know that Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon combined now have as many homers (3) as Yankee cleanup hitter Mark Teixeira. Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, and Logan Verrett have each doubled as well, making five Met pitchers with more extra-base hits this season than Yankee third baseman Chase Headley (0 extra-base hits in 90 at bats).
As rare as Syndergaard’s feat was (only the second Met pitcher ever to hit two homers in one game, after Walt Terrell in 1983), it still pales in comparison to Colon’s shot heard ’round the baseball world, now immortalized in this mashup with “The Natural.”
Lisa, perhaps we’ll see a Yankee pitcher mashup with a classic baseball movie – Mark Feinsand in the Daily News reports that a scout compared Michael Pineda to Nuke LaLoosh from “Bull Durham.”
Tonight, the Colon and the Mets face Clayton Kershaw, so I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Colon’s homer streak will come to an end. The Mets did hit two homers off Kershaw in last year’s NLDS, but both were by Daniel Murphy, one in Game 1 and one in Game 4. Speaking of home run streaks, Murphy’s Game 4 shot started his string of six straight postseason games with a homer.
Syndergaard’s next start is scheduled for next Tuesday, when Murphy returns to Citi Field for the first time since leaving the Mets. Depending on how the Nationals deal with a doubleheader this weekend, his opponent could be Max Scherzer, fresh off his 20-strikeout performance last night. But Scherzer also allowed two homers last night and actually leads the National League in homers allowed with 11. (Second with 10 is Pittsburgh’s Jon Niese.) Granted, the last time Scherzer faced the Mets, last September, he pitched a no-hitter and struck out 17. But that Mets lineup did not include Thor!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
