Two homeruns from David Wright, and one more each from Lucas Duda and Neil Walker helped the New York Mets to take the first of a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2. The Mets have won four of their last five games, including capturing their first series of the year at Cleveland. With yesterday’s shutout, the Mets have now had two shutouts.
On Monday night, however, it was the speed of right-hander Noah “Thor” Syndergaard’s fastball hit triple digits 18 times as he whiffed out eight Phillies, allowed 5 hits, 1 run and two walks. He improves his record to 2-0 and leads the Major Leagues with 29 Ks in his first three games of the 2016 year. According to FanGraphs, NoahSyndergaard leads the majors in average fastball velocity (98.1), slider velocity (92.0) and change-up velocity (89.5) this season. In 2015, he threw 1,421 pitches at 95 mph or faster, the second-most among all major league pitchers behind Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole (1,484).
“Everything was clicking,” Syndergaard said in an interview. “Mechanically, I felt great out there. It just gives you the most amount of confidence in the world.”
New York Mets coach Terry Collins said, “We are a team that’s built on power, and when we hit homers, we win games,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “Tonight, we hit homers.”
The Phillies were limited to just five hits, including an RBI single.
The New York Mets have definitely picked up their stride a little bit with both at-bats and good pitching all happening at the same time. Whether or not it holds will of course take time to be seen, but let’s enjoy what’s going on so far.
Of course Curtis Granderson, Conforto and Cespedes all struggled with making contact with the ball Granderson struck out twice, Conforto missed three times and Cespedes and Kevin Plawecki had a deuce when it came to strikeouts.
No visiting player has even come close to Wright’s 22 career homers at Citizens Bank Park. Next on the list is Carlos Beltran, who has hit 14 homers at the ballpark, which opened in 2004.
On the road, the Mets are now 3-1 on their nine-game road trip, which includes a stop in Atlanta after Philadelphia. New York is now 4-2 on the road this season. Noah Syndergaard’s 21 strikeouts, which is tied for the sixth-most in the majors; tied for the most in club history for a Mets pitcher after his first two starts of the season.
Jeurys Familia now has four saves in the National League.
The good news off the field today is that Jason deGrom had taken home his son after a harrowing few days after entering the world.
On Tuesday, April 19, Logan Verrett will start in the second game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He takes the place of Jacob deGrom who is in Florida caring for his newborn son. In his last appearance this season against the Miami Marlins Verrett blanked the Marlins over six innings, but he didn’t throw very 85 pitches.
The Mets will go up against Vince Velasquez, a right handed pitcher with the Phillies who has two wins and a perfect ERA. He has struck out 25 batters in 15 innings – the most K’s for any Phillies pitcher in his first two starts. The next game takes place on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:05 p.m. ET.
