A new year means a new pitch-usage plan for second-year New York Mets starter Noah Syndergaard. And on the first day with it, it worked like a charm.
Syndergaard struck out nine in six innings in a 2-0 win over the Royals on Tuesday. That gave him 175 strikeouts in his first 25 career games.
Only two Mets pitchers have had more in that short a time: Dwight Gooden (202) and Matt Harvey (185). He’s struck out at least eight hitters in his last five regular-season starts (he also struck out at least eight twice in three postseason starts).
How he won
Syndergaard went to the slider more often than he had in any start in his career. He threw 23 and the Royals were 1-for-9 with six strikeouts. That's as many strikeouts with his slider as he had in the entire 2015 regular season.
He threw 38 fastballs, the first time in his career he has thrown fewer than 50 fastballs in a start. Against those pitches, the Royals were 1-for-10 and did not record a hard-hit ball.
Of the 13 balls put into play against Syndergaard, 10 were judged as softly hit by our video-tracking service (77 percent). That's the third-highest soft-hit percentage in a start in his career.
Defining at-bat
The biggest at-bat of the game came with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth inning, with the Mets trying to protect their two-run lead. Syndergaard had just walked Eric Hosmer, but he was calm and composed against Kendrys Morales. Three sliders produced three missed swings, the end of the inning, and the final batter of Syndergaard’s day.
Morales lined out and doubled in his first two at-bats. But the sliders Syndergaard threw him were the first ones Morales saw all game.
Syndergaard’s day also began with escaping trouble. After Alcides Escobar led off with a triple, Syndergaard struck out Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer in succession. The last strikeout against Hosmer was a seven-pitch battle that ended with a slider that caught Hosmer looking. It was the only pitch in the at-bat that ended in the strike zone.
