Syndergaard gets first big-league shutout

NEW YORK — Noah Syndergaard and the New York Mets ended this disappointing season the same way they want to start the next one.

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Syndergaard threw his first major-league shutout and the Mets wrapped up a frustrating 2018 campaign Sunday with their second consecutive 1-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.

“I told the bullpen before the game that they could take the day off. True story,” Syndergaard said. “It’s a great feeling.”

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.

New York rebounded a bit to win 33 of its last 55 games, but by then it was way too late.

“I feel like we played some really good baseball,” Syndergaard said.

Promising rookie Sandy Alcantara (2-3) struck out a career-high 10 over seven innings in his sixth majorleague start for the Marlins — three against the Mets.

“I thought he was more aggressive,” manager Don Mattingly said. “There’s nothing monumental that happened today other than this guy has a chance to be a really good pitcher, and consistency is going to be the key.”

After trading Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Dee Gordon during an offseason payroll purge, the Marlins ended up with the worst record in the National League at 63-98 in Derek Jeter’s first year as chief executive officer. Miami went scoreless over its final 24 innings.

“Last two days, kind of indicative. We go (22) innings and only give up two runs and we don’t win either game,” Mattingly said.

Jeter signaled this month that Mattingly is expected back next year. Looking to have some fun at the finish line, he appointed All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto to pilot the team Sunday.

“It was fun. I enjoyed it, for sure,” Realmuto said. “It was actually a fairly easy game to manage because Sandy did a great job, obviously, so there weren’t many moves on our part.”

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.