The Mets climbed back to .500 with their third win in a row tonight. Noah Syndergaard was on top of his game, leading the Mets to a decisive 6-2 win over the Nationals in Washington.
The big righty didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning, and other than the two-run home run he surrendered to Victor Robles in the sixth inning, he maintained control all night, allowing just four hits and one walk over eight innings with six strikeouts. Syndergaard seemed to adjust his game plan a bit, relying more on his sinking two-seam fastball and less on the slider that has eluded him this season. He peppered in plenty of curve balls, changeups and four-seam fastballs to keep the Nationals off balance.
The Mets got all the scoring they’d need in the first inning, courtesy of a Wilson Ramos grand slam. Hopefully, the big bop gets the struggling buffalo off the schneid because the Mets could sure use his bat. Brandon Nimmo drove in a run with an RBI double in the sixth inning and Dominic Smith added an insurance run with a pinch hit home run in the ninth inning. Seth Lugo closed it out with a three-strikeout ninth inning.
Tomorrow night, the pitching matchup is a lot less favorable with Wilmer Font facing the lefty Patrick Corbin.
I still want Lugo to get a crack as a starter but he’s nearly untouchable as a reliever. As he throws all of his pitches and you don’t see too many relievers use a 4-5 pitch mix most are two pitch pitchers and that plays a part in why Lugo is so effective out of the pen. Ramos got his biggest hit of his season not that there are many to choose from and Hellickson going after Conforto with only breaking pitches ahead of Ramos showed that Hellickson would have rather take his chances with Ramos and Ramos made him pay.
Noah was excellent as both his two seamer and four seamer were filthy and his curve and changeup were good too and he also took advantage of the Nats being so aggressive and got a good amount of grounders including a couple big double plays. The only guy he continues to have issues with is Robles early in his career.
Rough night for Cano with four weak ground outs but it didn’t matter tonight but Id really like to see him and Conforto switch spots in the order. Good to see Nimmo get a big hit and for Dom to crush one.
All in all a nice and tidy win vs a team that looks thoroughly defeated right now hopefully Font won’t wake them up tomorrow.
Wow Robles seems to own Syndergaard.
But 8 IP, 2 ER – that’s more like it. Hopefully that will be the springboard to better outings.
I’m curious to see how Font does tomorrow, if he’s able to make it to 6 IP. But even if he doesn’t, the bullpen is about as rested as it will be the rest of the year.
The Nats helped Noah to be efficient with an aggressive approach—- they did Barrel several At’em balls that became outs
Noah throws Hard, but he’s not a great strikeout pitcher because of his execution and mix.
Noah is single-handedly keeping Robles in the majors – and the other pitchers are thankful for that.
Against Noah he is 4-7 with 3 HRs.
Against everyone else he has a 678 OPS.
Gut reaction: bad teams make mistakes like not turning over double play. Good teams take advantage of mistakes. Ramos made the Mets a good team last night. In a Down Season, Ramos still has been hitting with men in scoring position.
Syndergaard had a quality start and I will take that any day.
It made me smile to see Dom hit a 3-0 out of the yard. Kudos to Callaway for letting him swing. I laughed when Dom did his Buffalo horns when Ramos homered. Dom has an integer role on this team. Wouldn’t it be something if Frasier also excel’s in the backup role at the other corner?
The Mets are in position to win this series. They have to win this series to be considered are contender. Let’s go Mets!