Noah throws blanks; Jose says goodbye
Noah Syndergaard pitched his first major-league shutout and the Mets wrapped up a disappointing season Sunday with their second consecutive 1-0 victory over the Marlins.
Todd Frazier hit an RBI double for the Mets, who finished fourth in the NL East at 77-85 under rookie manager Mickey Callaway — a seven-win improvement over last year. After beginning the season with playoff aspirations, they jumped out to an 11-1 start before going 5-21 in June as injuries once again took a heavy toll.
The Mets rebounded a bit to win 33 of their last 55 games, but it was way too late by then.
Promising rookie Sandy Alcantara (2-3) struck out a careerhigh 10 over seven innings in his sixth majorleague start for the Marlins. After trading Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Dee Gordon in an offseason payroll purge, Miami ended up with the worst record in the National League at 63-98 in Derek Jeter’s first year as chief executive officer. The Marlins were scoreless over their final 24 innings.
Looking to have some fun at the finish line, manager Don Mattingly appointed All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto to pilot the team Sunday. Jeter indicated this month that Mattingly will be back next year.
Syndergaard (13-4) allowed five hits and fanned six in a fast finale that took just 2 hours, 10 minutes. He walked none and threw 101 pitches for his second career complete game. The other one came on Sept. 2 in San Francisco, and the big right-hander completed the season by tossing a careerbest 15 straight scoreless innings. Syndergaard’s completegame shutout was only the 19th in the majors this year, the fewest in a season since 1874, when there were only eight teams. There were 27 such outings last season.
Alcantara struck out five straight before Jeff McNeil opened the fourth with a single for the Mets’ first hit. McNeil scored from first when left fielder Isaac Galloway misplayed Frazier’s hard-hit double.
One day after David Wright’s emotional goodbye at Citi Field, the Mets gave Jose Reyes another ceremonial start at shortstop. The 35-year-old Reyes, who batted .189 in a bench role this season, was lifted after grounding out leading off the bottom of the first.
He hugged teammates in the dugout and received a warm ovation while coming out for a curtain call for the crowd of 28,346.
“I just thought he deserved to be on the field one more time,” Callaway said.