Busting out the bigs guns in Games 1, 2
Mets thankful Noah ready
WHEN it comes to pitching, the Mets are the envy of the baseball industry. When it comes to this National League Championship Series? The Mets’ pitching depth suddenly becomes as tenuous as Jeb Bush’s election hopes.
Let’s put it this way: The Mets should feel very fortunate Noah Syndergaard reported feeling good enough to start NLCS Game 2 Sunday night at Citi Field. For their chances of defeating the Cubs increase dramatically with the ability to use each of their three top weapons twice each, and they’re now in position to do that, with Matt Harvey getting Games 1 and 5, Syndergaard Games 2 and 6 and Jacob deGrom Games 3 and 7.
“We just thought if you had to sit down right now with what we’ve seen in the last month of the season, and that’s as far back as I’m going to go, if you had to put the four guys that were in the rotation right now, it would go basically deGrom, Harvey and Syndergaard at the top,” Mets manager Terry Collins said Saturday. “No disrespect to Steven [Matz] , but he just hasn’t pitched a lot.”
Matz might very well be a fullfledged member of the Young Aces next summer, after a full offseason of rest and a full spring training of preparation with the understanding he has made the team. He undoubtedly possesses the raw tools to defeat a good offensive team like the Cubs right now.
Yet as Collins pointed out, Matz hasn’t pitched a lot — not in the major leagues overall, and not recently. Counting his NL Division Series Game 4 start last week, in which he drew his first bigleague loss while allowing three runs in five innings, he has made a total of seven starts in the majors. Those have come over a span of 108 days due to a pair of injuries.
Syndergaard might be raw, with just 24 regularseason starts, one postseason start and one postseason relief appearance to his name. But Matz is so raw, he makes Syndergaard look like Bartolo Colon in comparison. Which is why he’ll get the Game 4 assignment and otherwise be prepared to help in relief.
The Cubs hit righty pitching (.246/.322/ .406) slightly better than lefties (.238/.319/ .372) in the regular season, although Matz actually pitched better against righties (.250/ .269/.375) than lefties (.250/.400/250) during his time in the majors. He walked seven lefty batters in 47 plate appearances against them and issued just three free passes in 109 plate appearances against righties. During his time in the minor leagues, Matz generally pitched better against lefty swingers.
It was Syndergaard’s debut performance out of the bullpen, in which he warmed up four separate times to relieve deGrom in NLDS Game 5 at Dodger Stadium and finally threw a scoreless seventh inning, that left the Mets questioning the extent of his availability going forward. On Saturday, Syndergaard reported to the ballpark and reported feeling well enough to start two games. Collins said Syndergaard totaled about 60 pitches in his bullpen sessions, and then he threw 17 pitches in the game, giving him a total of roughly 80.
Looking at it through that prism, Syndergaard will be starting on two days’ rest from an appearance that constituted roughly threequarters of a normal start. That’s asking a lot from their prized 23yearold.
“I love our pitching staff,” Collins said. “I mean, I love these young pitchers. They’re going to be so good.”
They very well might be. They have met the hype so far.
In October, though, you don’t revel over potential. You use your best available assets, and you cross your fingers.
The Mets have deployed their best available assets. Now comes the fingercrossing.