Thor HAMMERED in san DIEGO
PADRES 7 METS 2
SAN DIEGO — You could say Thor got hammered Tuesday night. The big, young righthander, Noah Syndergaard, was hit hard and chased early as the Mets fell to the Padres, 7-2, at Petco Park.
Syndergaard, nicknamed Thor, allowed a career-high seven runs on a career-high 10 hits. He also notched a career-high 10 strikeouts — his first double-digit strikeout game — and did not walk a batter in lasting just four innings.
That snapped a two-game win streak for the Mets (29-24), who fell a half-game behind the Nationals in the NL East. The Mets continue to struggle on the road, losing eight of their last nine away from Citi Field and dropping to 8-16 in road games.
Syndergaard (2-3) dropped to 0-3 on the road in what was by far the worst of his five major-league starts.
Now, thanks to the Mets implementing a six-man rotation with the return of Dillon Gee from the disabled list Wednesday and a day off on Monday, Syndergaard will have a whole week to think about what went wrong.
There will be plenty for him to try to decipher from the odd outing. He had good stuff and seemed to have command of his fastball, but struggled with his breaking pitches and pitch selection.
The Padres scored four runs in the second, leading off with four straight singles off the big righthander before he could get the first out — a sacrifice bunt by Ian Kennedy (3-5). Will Venable then finished it off with a two-run triple.
Syndergaard (2-3) gave up a run in the third on what turned out to be an RBI triple for Cory Spangenberg after the on-field call that Ruben Tejada tagged him out at third was overturned after a video review in New York.
In the fourth, Syndergaard’s final inning of the night, Venable led off with a single and Derek Norris drove him in with a home run to left field.
The Mets had given Syndergaard an early 1-0 lead to work with. Tejada, starting his fifth straight game at third base, got things started with a oneout single to left in the first and then scored on Michael Cuddyer’s two-out, ground ball single to center field.
Wilmer Flores cut the lead to five runs in the sixth with a single to left that drove in Cuddyer, who was 3-for4 on the night.